Couple of questions about queens and the lack thereof

[fillycate]

Picked up a swarm yesterday, cut a bough out of a tree 25' up or so. They were all spread out when they fell, so I wasn't sure where the queen was. Put my box over them and they crawled in nicely, fanning, but still didn't know if that meant the queen was with them. When almost all had marched in the box, saw a small cluster of 7-10 bees around a dead, crushed bee, all of them fanning. I panicked that this was the queen dead! Looked at her, but honestly couldn't tell, so tossed the dead body into the box.

Opinions on how I can know if this was the queen? Would they cluster around a crushed worker fanning? Would they march orderly into a box without the queen being with them?

Also, opened up my first hive from the package I bought (it had been too long since I'd checked on them.) They hadn't built much more comb, and there were a lot of drone cells. There wasn't a lot of capped worker, but there was some. Does this mean I have no queen and a laying worker, or a failing queen? No queen cells. What should I do next? They are still bringing stuff in, definitely pollen. They have some honeycomb started too. Do hives with laying workers buzz loudly like I have been told queenless hives do, or do they just think it is business a usual? They seemed kinda agitated, but I don't know if that was my imagination.

[tecumseh]

cate writes:
Put my box over them and they crawled in nicely, fanning, but still didn't know if that meant the queen was with them.

tecumseh:
if the girls march into the box themselves this typically means the queen is in the box.

cate writes:
They hadn't built much more comb, and there were a lot of drone cells. There wasn't a lot of capped worker, but there was some. Does this mean I have no queen and a laying worker, or a failing queen?

tecumseh:
sounds to me like a failing queen. either kill the queen and incert a frame of young larva or a new purchased queen. if this unit has sat in this condition long enough anything you might do could entail substatial risk (ie there is a goodly chance anything you might do will be unsuccessful).

just out of casual curiousity have you been feeding either of these new starts?

[fillycate]

I fed them earlier in the year, but they seemed to be doing OK as they showed no interest in the syrup after awhile. I just removed a feeder from this sluggish hive that still had some easily-accessible syrup in the bottom.

A failing queen... that is unfortunate as this hive came from a package I purchased. The queen should have been a good one. :(