BEEBOY, Again, thanks for your post lasts February. I was setting in constant cold weather so your bee activity post were so encouraging to me as my bees were clustered and I was so anxious.
Sounds like you know exactly what you are doing. Me too, I also have hives that or on queen replacement list, due to: aggressive behavior, or poor comb builders, or poor laying pattern.
I have a hive that insist on burr comb or comb built 90degrees to the frame. The queen is a sorta a good layer, gentle bees but all the burr comb is a pain. If I present a new plastic wax cell frame the bees build comb cross ways. So, BEEBOY, like you said, I really don?t like the hive. The hive is to be requeened later this month.
There are always culls in my apiary. The new queens I place this year will not be evaluated until next spring and so on.