It's a mystery and I welcome opinions

[Bakersdozen]

I checked a colony of Carnolians 2 days ago.  I didn't see the queen or eggs, but I saw young 2-3 day old larvae.  I saw some empty queen cups and numerous swarm cells with larvae present, uncapped.  I went back in today to see if I could find the queen and do a split.  Still didn't see a queen or eggs, but older larvae.  Also, the queen cells were not developed any further but the queen cups and been capped into supercedure cells.  They were pretty small in size.
The bees were what I would call angsty.  Similar to other queenless colonies I have seen in the past.
I also saw about 6 cells of what I believe is chalkbrood.  Not concerned about that, just found it interesting.
So, I removed the small supercedure cells, queen cells, and examined the chalkbrood closely.  Then I did a newspaper combine with a small queen right colony.

I wonder if I accidently squashed the queen on the inspection 2 days ago?  Maybe they were queenless at that time?
Any thoughts?

[iddee]

""Also, the queen cells were not developed any further but the queen cups and been capped into supercedure cells.  They were pretty small in size.""

This is doubtful. First, to be swarm cells, they had to have larva. 2 days later, they had to have grown. They cannot stop larva development.
Second, queen cups do not have eggs or larva. They would not be capped 2 days later, whether swqrm or supercedure.

[RAST]

A couple of random thoughts " numerous swarm cells with larvae present, uncapped" .  Did they swarm a little ahead of time?   
" the queen cups and been capped into supercedure cells"  If these were empty 2 days prior, where did the larva come from?
 "They were pretty small in size"  I have what was when a virgin very small queen that is currently laying gangbusters, I found it hard to believe that I even saw her originally. May go bad next week but for now she is filling frames.
Chalkbrood, needed a new queen anyway.
 The cells and cups make me think it was something other than a squashed queen.

[Bakersdozen]

""Also, the queen cells were not developed any further but the queen cups and been capped into supercedure cells.  They were pretty small in size.""

This is doubtful. First, to be swarm cells, they had to have larva. 2 days later, they had to have grown. They cannot stop larva development.
Second, queen cups do not have eggs or larva. They would not be capped 2 days later, whether swqrm or supercedure.

I see the logic in your statement about the queen cups. Perhaps they were there all along and I was too busy looking at swarm cells.  The colony definitely had swarm and supercedure cells. 

RAST, I wondered if they swarmed prior to the queen cells being capped too.  Is that possible?

I placed a fabric covered frame I made in front of this colony to see what happens next and to examine the chalkbrood when they clean house.