Hi everyone,

I'm an amateur beekeeper with one hive.  I had planned to split the
hive early this spring, but unfortunately, I was caught up in
work-related things, and my bees went ahead and conducted the split
for me.  :(  The departing swarm stayed within the apiary for a week
or so, but they were too high up in the tree they'd selected to allow
me to capture them.  (Not without shotgunning the base of their branch
off, at any rate.  I was almost tempted to try.)

Anyway, so the next weekend after the swarm departed the hive, I went
into the old hive to look for evidence of a queen.  I didn't check
every single frame, but I yanked 4 frames from the core of the brood
chamber.  I saw empty swarm cells, and capped drone brood (no doubt
laid by the old queen, before she started to slim down).  But there
were no eggs, no larvae, and no capped worker brood.  And the hive
itself, while not necessarily mean, seemed a bit grumpy.

So I checked again last weekend.  The capped drone brood had emerged,
but as before, their were no eggs, no larvae, and no capped brood.
And this time, the hive was definitely mean.

After the first weekend, I had hoped that there was a virgin queen in
the hive, and she just hadn't started laying yet.  But now, I think
it's more likely that the virgin queen met with an untimely demise
during one of her mating flights.  If I had another hive, I'd swap a
frame with some eggs on it, and see if the hive reared a new queen,
but that's not an option.

The only things I can think of to do are either 1) wait another week
or so, on the off chance there is a queen in there and she just hasn't
started laying yet, or 2) obtain a replacement queen and put her in
the hive.  If there truly is no queen in that hive, the bees should
accept a new queen readily.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom?  Barring that, does anyone have
advice on what type of queen would be appropriate for southwestern
Pennsylvania, where our winters are sometimes not so mild?  (I started
this hive from a nuc I bought from a local beekeeper, who was raising
his own queens last year; I have no experience in purchasing
commercially reared queens.)

Thanks,
James