Finally found the queen

[crispy]

Hi all did an inspection today checking to see what stage the honey super is up to and i dont think there will be a harvest this year ,we still have two months of good weather left but the honey is only partially capped on most of the frames maybe next year ,
Anyway i want going to look at the brood box but thought while i am here i may as well ,lots of brood capped and larvea one frame seemed to have a heap of drone brood on it also found what i think is a superceedure cell so i got rid of that what was inside looked like a larvea but just looked like whitish fluid anyway its gone now , while inspecting the frames i managed for the first time see her majesty .
Now i believe i have carnolian bees not golden italians and the queen is not huge but she has a black abdomen , a lot of the queens i see have golden abdomens but hers was black no stripes like the others either she seems to be laying well and i have a lot of bees in the brood box plenty of pollen stores as well just about one whole frame anyway at least now i have seen her . 

[sawdstmakr]

Crispy,
When you find one supersedure cell, don?t remove it. Bees make supercedure cells when the queen is starting to fail. If you only have drone cells, especially in worker cells, that is an indication that she is at the end of her egg production.
Your bees are trying to save the hive before it is too late.
Jim Altmiller

[crispy]

Hi jim the drone cells seemed to be on one frame only plenty of of capped worker brood and also larvea at around the 6 day mark ,you may be right i dont really know but if i only see drone brood being the end of febuary i may be in trouble as i have heard that queen breeders dont breed after febuary here .