New queen or did the paint wear off?

[gmh3]

Okay

today i opened my hive(first and only hive from august, 2001); i have been monitoring the hive all winter; all is well, healthy bees and they are busy, busy!

i could not find my new queen from last year (august nuc); she was marked with white dot. I did find eggs and larvae of varying stages and as i progressed into the top box the larvae got younger.

i finally found a queen! she was not marked! surely there is no way the paint mark wore off , right? Is this a new queen that the hive produced, naturally?

also, i am checking my copy of "the hive and the honey bee" to confirm what i believe is queen cells....if i found a queen , will she kill the larvae in these cells?

i rotated boxes top to bottom; plenty of honey left in frames (4 full);

should i split this hive? or add a third deep box?

advice, commentary, help is appreciated!!

thanks

[James Burke]

It's possible that your queen may have been superseded. Check for remnants of cell bases around the top and edges of the frames. However, I have seen marked queens that have been stripped of their marking because I saw flecks of paint on the frames and combs.