I checked my queenless hive last night and all seems well, eggs are visible in the cells and the colony is back to normal. Looks like the bees perked up upon laying as opposed to the emergence of a virgin queen. I was a little worried that my experiment wasn't working out and so I placed an order for a new queen a couple of days ago, now, with an extra queen, I have a great excuse to convince my girlfriend that purchasing some more hive components is neccessary! :D
Thanks for all the replies!