As I wrote earlier that there was no sign that there was ever a queen in the
hive, I forgot to mention one detail I noticed.  There were cup cells all over
the place as if the bees had "hope" that somehow an egg would magically
appear from somewhere.  The colony started from a swarm.  The open cells in
the "brood area" were not dark enough to ever have been used even once in
my estimation.  What I couldn't figure out was how the bees did such a good
job, even without a queen.  There was not a single queen cell in the hive,
only cup cells scattered throughout it.  Having said that, I thank P-O
Gustafsson for the suggestion to try the frame with eggs and young brood first
to see if they start making queen cells to know for sure.  In my particular
case, I was confident enough to conclude I had never had a queen and to skip
that step.  I've made mistakes before and this may be one of them, but I'll
report back on how things turn out.  This evening I incorporated the swarm
colony and the 3 frame nucleus together into a single hive body and put on some
empty supers.  Our main honey flow will be starting here soon and I have great
hopes for this particular hive now.  I think it may turn out to be my best one.
I'll be embarassed to admit failure, but if I got it wrong, I'll let everyone
know and learn from my experience to be more careful next time.

Layne Westover
College Station, Texas