If you don’t have enough bees to do a mite count, I would treat anyway. Especially if you are using OAV. It is better (for your neighbors if nothing else) to treat and not need to, than not treat and wish you had. 
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Very true Dawn, especially VOA, it is such a good treatment, and you’re right, not all newbies are bold enough to do a mite count…
We do get scared from time to time! What seems obvious for a seasoned beek is still a great challenge for us every time we crank open the hive!
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Judging by the hair on its back its young so give it some time.
I’m probably seeing things but right at the top of the wooden ware in the photo it looks like the one pointed out earlier in this thread, not golden like the one at the bottom.
???
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@skeggley, Not to be outdone, I re-read your directions and saw that in my moronic state I was looking at the last photo, 6 of 6, not 3 of 6 as you said - and I think I see her now!
Determined to improve myself somehow, I even figured out how to use the markup function in my photo app 
and circled what I think you spotted…
@jmayot Are we seeing two queens in the same hive??
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Mmmh now I do see two queens in my hive!
Aargh! What to do?
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I also saw the one in the top first, and then one in the bottom was mentioned… so I saw 2…too
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I only see one queen, the bottom one. The bee with the circle seems to have a longer abdomen then the rest of the bees. I have never seen a queen with the same markings as the bees. As you can see, the queen doesn’t have markings like the bees. When Wilma first saw that photo, she said “that’s no queen”. Who am I to argue?
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Yes Jeff that was my point and ‘perhaps’. If you look top centre in that last pic above there is another elongated abdomen, short wings but without the golden colour. Could it just be a genetic trait?
What markings do virgin queens have? I was also thinking laying worker.
I dunno.
Hi Skeggley, I was wondering myself after posting my comment if it could be a laying worker. The virgin queens have the same markings as they have after mating (I guess), only a smaller abdomen. One way to tell is to gently shake them into an empty box above a QX, with brood below it.
It got me thinking about the worker’s long abdomen, wondering if a laying worker’s abdomen does get longer. I sometimes get laying workers laying above a QX while at the same time the queen is happily laying below it. It was happening with one hive last year, but none this year.
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Had a very similar issue last month, also in California. Most of queens in our area are sold out. I brought in a queen from Big Island Queens in Hawaii, which is Oliverez Honey Bees Kona operation. Good Italian fully bred stock with good mite hygienics. Pulled the virgin queens out and replaced with a VHS Italian. A great solution to your concern, also a great measure to avoid cross bred aggressive strains in California.