One of the worst feelings during a hive check is when the queen is nowhere to be found, nor are there new eggs at the bottom of uncapped comb. Life in the colony suddenly goes from an efficiently run community to a potentially perilous situation.
In nearly three decades of keeping bees in Montana, my husband and I have seen a lot of queens die. Some coups were planned. But more often, the need for a new queen arose because either something unexpected happened to her, or the colony decided they needed a new monarch.