Was this logical?

[Bakersdozen]

What an emotional rollercoaster this spring has been!  In March I thought the hive in question was queenless.  I realized later that I couldn't see the eggs any more, but that's a different topic.  On April 7, I opened the hive to requeen only to see about 3 frames of larvae and capped brood.  OK, I think.  Today I was able to do another inspection only to find a laying worker.  All brood was drones.  There were still plenty of workers and nurse bees present.  The hive next to it had several open queen cups and two capped supercedure cells on two different frames.  That queen is 3 years old, so no surprise there.   There was plenty of bees, capped brood and some larvae in the second hive as well as the supercedure cells.  I took the original hive, with the laying worker, did a shake out and traded a frame from the laying worker hive with a frame containing a capped supercedure cell from the second hive.  It seemed like the logical thing to do and I don't have anything to lose with the laying worker hive.  I guess I want confirmation that it was making the best of a bad situation.

[Woody Roberts]

Right or wrong, thats what I would have done.

[Perry]

Whether it works or not, it is probably what I would do under the same circumstances. Sometimes we have to make a deciaion on the fly, and I think you did well.

Edit = Woody posted before I hit "post" and beat me to it! 

[blueblood]

I would have done it too.

[Bakersdozen]

I am feeling more confidant about my decision.  After posting I did some reading on the subject.  It seems a frame of brood will help the transition, of the hive, from laying worker to hatching queen.  As luck would have it, the other side of the frame with the supercedure cell was full of capped worker brood.  In this case the worker brood will help maintain the population while the virgin queen begins her career.

[minz]

I don’t think of anyway that that could have gone wrong.  It was slick that you had some QC exactly when you needed them and on different frames.

[Bakersdozen]

I thought I would keep this updated so that it would be a learning experience for someone as well as myself.
When I checked this hive today,the queen cell that that I moved to this hive is all but gone!  I didn't see any eggs, brood or queen.  Would she have had time to hatch, take her mating flight and start laying in two weeks?  The week after I moved the queen cell to this hive was cool and wet. 

[Bakersdozen]

Another update:  requeened yesterday evening. 

[efmesch]

Looks like your roller coaster hasn't reached the end of the ride.  I hope from here on it will be going on a straight path and pick up momentum.

[LazyBkpr]

Re queened? Did you find the queen from the cell or just added one because she was not there?

[tecumseh]

it sounds to me like you thing process is well reasoned.   logical... well you always need to remind yourself that you are working with stinging social insects and there is absolutely no logic in doing that.

[Bakersdozen]

Re queened? Did you find the queen from the cell or just added one because she was not there?

No, I didn't find the queen.  There were no eggs, larvae or brood.  The queen cell was gone.  Had I not known which frame it had been on, I wouldn't have hardly known that a queen cell had been there.  It's like they had destroyed it. The hive's behavior was agitated.  I'll go back in this afternoon to see if they have released her.  If they haven't, I'll observe their behavior towards her before I release her.
I took some pics of something interesting going on outside the hive.  I will try to post.

[efmesch]

Baker, you can't mess too much with a cake in the oven, you can't mess too much with a queen in an introduction cage.  You don't want either to fall flat.  Wait a few days before going back to check.  Let them do it in their own good time.

[apisbees]

He re-queened on the 13th and it is now the 17th, it about the time I would go in, not to look for the queen but to pull the cage and check that she got released and close up the space where the queen cage was located. if she hadn't been released I would pop the cork and direct release her.

[Bakersdozen]

I went in Friday, 5/16 and released her.  They almost had the candy eaten through.  There was a dead attendant in there so I am glad I got her out of there.  The sound and mood of the hive was completely different from my previous check.  Very calm and serene.  They were covering the queen cage lovingly (if one can use that term with honey bees).  I'll give her some peace and quiet before I check on her progress. 
I wanted to post some pictures of what I observed on the front of this hive, but I can't figure out how to do it.  I'll keep trying.

[iddee]

Posting pics

http://www.worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php/topic,266.0.html

[Bakersdozen]

These are photos I took about 1 week after placing the frame with brood and an intact supercedure cell in the hive that I had done a shake out on.  The weather that week had been cold and wet. 
Am I seeing anything here?  The first picture was an unusual cluster on the front of the hive.  I ran to the house to get my binoculars but could only find the camera.  The cluster dispersed and I noticed something sticking to the hive where the bees had been, as you can see in the second picture.  What ever that was disappeared shortly there after.  The hive was testy and was giving me warning bumps as I took the pictures.