I just saw a short interview on a local morning show, here in Vancouver,
Canada, that presented the work of Dr. Winston and Dr. Slesser from
Simon Fraser University.  They have isolated and synthesized the
particular pheromone that makes a colony believe it is Queen rite.  The
substance is put in a small plastic container, and can be used to ship
bees (happily) without a queen.
 
the url for S.F.U. is   http://www.sfu.ca/
 
There was not much other information, but I suppose it could also be
used to make a colony think it was queen rite until a new queen was
ordered.