This evening I inspected a colony of bees and was not at all prepared for
what I found.  This colony was developed from an early, thin spring split
and new marked Cordovan queen from California.  They took off wonderfully in
a full deep with drawn comb from a winter dead out.  An end bar to end bar
pattern quickly developed and shortly a second deep was added.  "Wow, I
could get a frame or so of honey if this keeps up!" I thought proudly.
Ha.....,  this evening's discovery dislodged that idea.  There was not an
egg in the house and only scant drone brood.  "What kind of junk were these
breeders selling anyway?"  I wondered.  Then a frame was found with several
queen cells in the supercedure location.  "So that was it!"  This queen ran
out of gas and the workers threw her out,  I surmised.  Then I spotted
her...  in an eternal sleep, neatly squashed on the top of the inner cover,
marked thorax and all.  Good grief, a victim of one of my previous visits.
There is a lesson here.
Kevin Kress, Cincinnati, Ohio.
List lurker and apparent queen crusher