At 07:35 PM 10/10/98 -0700, you wrote: >A week ago I opened my hive to discover that the bees were building about a >dozen or so queen cells. Today the queen cells are capped and there is no >evidence of new larvae or the queen, so I thinks she's gone. I have seen no >drones and I'm concerned that the new queen will have trouble finding mates >at this time of year. Maybe you don't have any in your hive but in your area there are enough drones to mate with your queen if you have a few good days when she is ready to mate. >I live in coastal southern California where the bees can pretty much forage >throughout the year.