Hahahaa! Thank you @ Skeggley. I’ve got a mental image of that ‘boys club’ full of hairy, boggle eyed drones now! 
I’ve had my birds and the bees chat now…I’m onto it!
I will keep you updated, and thanks again for input.
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You’ll have to do your sums. From egg to laying queen is going to be a minimum of 25 days and that is a best scenario. A new queen takes a few days to mature before she flies to mate then needs a few days to start laying. She has a supposed window of three weeks before her tackle dries up and she can’t be penetrated by a drone though I have known this period be extended substantially in bad weather.
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How amazing is it @Dee, that this is even known! Incredible.
Very undesirable to have one’s tackle dry up…
Thank you for sharing 
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I like that idea. 
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It’s more for grafting queens but still a good calendar
http://www.thebeeyard.org/queen-rearing-calendar/
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I will have a peek in about 9 days, as, by chance, the local Beekeepers group are coming around to check out the Flowhives! It’ll be good to have all that extra assistance and pairs of eyes!
I’ve been warned that opening the brood box at this stage can be a bit fraught, if you accidentally break a Queen cell in the process. 
There are 4 FlowFrames full and capped in this hive.
I guess I was wondering if I should be removing the super altogether? Although we are moving slowly toward winter…our temps are still around 30deg in the daytime. No rain in the past month, and none forecast.
If I can just resuscitate this hive, then happy days!!
You don’t want to extract the honey from those? I would. Even if I was going to store it and give it back to the bees over winter. 
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I guess I was thinking that the bees might need some stores over our (very mild) winter?
Also, with the hive being queenless currently, I also thought it might be a bit mean to pinch their honey too! 
Well, you discussed robbing. I would rather rob their honey myself, with the ability to give it back later when the robbing frenzy is over, rather than let other bees rob it and it disappears forever! 
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Yes! Good point! Thanks @Dawn_SD. Love this forum!
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How’s that colony of yours going @Debra.marj?
Hi @skeggley, thanks for your interest. . I must confess…The local Beekeepers group came over last weekend, and I was convinced to leave the bees alone. Their view was that it was possible to damage a Queen cell when inspecting the BB, and it may be better to watch and wait for a little while longer.
The robber guard remains in place.
Sorry I can’t offer too much more insight.
I’ve got all fingers and toes crossed!
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While I understand and accept that view, especially for a new beekeeper, there are ways to reduce the chance of that happening. When you inspect the brood box, always remove an outer frame first. They are almost always honey, pollen and occasionally drone brood. I don’t remember seeing a queen cell on an outer frame. In fact, I hardly ever see worker brood on the outer frames either, except in an africanized hive, where they make wall-to-wall worker brood.
So then you put that empty frame into an empty box next to your hive (which is sitting on top of an inner cover to maintain the lower bee space). Now you have a brood box with only 7 frames in it. So you put your hive tool between the shoulders of the frame next to the gap and then next frame in (if you removed frame 1, then your tool goes between 2 and 3) and you very gently twist it in the gap to lever the frames apart without lifting. You separate the frame at both ends by at least 1/4", then you lift and inspect. When done, you put it into the empty box (with one frame in it). You do the same with next frame until you have 4 frames left in the brood box, then you put them back into their own box after inspecting. Finally reassemble in reverse order. Sounds complicated, but it is actually very simple.
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Thanks so much @Dawn_SD for taking the time to walk me through this in such a detailed and clear way. I really appreciate it, and feel more confident in having a look.
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Soooooooo excited!!! 
Have just been and inspected the brood box! Buoyed by @Dawn_SD expert instruction, and @skeggley’s interest, I buried my trepidation.
There was virtually no bee movements coming in or out. That had me worried. I didn’t see any eggs, or larvae. Only a little uncapped and capped honey. Quite a few bees still getting around on the frames. Many hundreds of dead bees lying in the bottom, and a tiny bit of moth webbing on two frames…all doom and gloom…
But I started to hear a bit of faint chirping. There were more bees on the fourth frame, and what im thinking may be a Queen cell underneath the frame. The bees were gathering in numbers at the top of the fifth frame , many deep, and blowing on them wasn’t budging them. After some time I saw the thorax of the QUEEN!!! Quite pale in colour, and so very beautiful! 
I can’t tell you how happy and excited i was/am!!!
It’s now 17 days since I popped the frame of brood in that hive, and although I won’t know if I can take any credit for helping, I’m just delighted Her Majesty is in residence.
Thanks to everyone for your wisdom and encouragement!
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Thank you for the feedback. It is always great to hear how things went. I wish you and your new queen a long and happy life together!
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Good to hear Debra, no wonder people get addicted to bee keeping, it’s a great buzz when you see something new like that, hopefully she’s mated well too.
Fortunately there are some who are not so self absorbed in their own little world and are willing to share their time and help out, altruism is still alive.
You see Debra, next year there will be someone seeking advice here and it may be you answering the call for help. 
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Hi,
Greetings from Los Angeles on Memoeial Day weekend of 2018!
I keep two hives (15 feet apart) in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was a tough winter, we experienced robbing in both colonies last June, and by September we had lost one of our colonies. I replaced this colony with a queenright colony bought from a fellow beekeeper in the area, this colony is now healthy, populating two brood boxes and I placed a super of Flow frames on top 7 days ago.
The weaker ‘3-frame colony’, is residing in one brood box only, it’s ruled by a queen hatched after last year’s swarming. I’m supplement feeding them still, and a week ago I ‘donated’ a frame-full of brood to them from the stronger neighboring colony.
My issue is, the robbers are back the last 10 days in spite of our preventive measures: permanently reduced entrances and robbing screens on. Plus towels draped across the top of both hives since last week.
What bugs me is that I’m not able to easily access the inside of either of my hives without inviting a slew of pirates (robbers) in. I need to monitor the hives for queen cells, drone cells and general well being as you know.
I struggle by the hives, covering the cavity of the hive by using the inside covers, switching frames and blocking entrances while inspecting one frame at a time, trying to work as fast and effectively as I can before all hell breaks loose. But it’s nearly impossible! The frenzy that goes on around me after two minutes is unbearable. I don’t know what to do, I feel like my stronger colony is well on the way to great well-being, but without me being able to monitor and support, it can all be lost so quickly. Any advice?
You must be in a dearth. If they are still being robbed I would probably move them elsewhere. A three mile or more move after dark would be best, but any move would probably be an improvement. I usually don’t recommend any opening of hives in the dark, but with a true red light you could open them in the dark. Bees tend to crawl instead of fly in the dark, which can be a problem, but maybe you could see what’s happening in the hive.
Another option is to open them as little as possible and give them emerging brood with attached bees (and no queen) to help them get on their feet. Entrances can be as small as one bee width. Reducing with screen is best. Cover the entrance with a screen. Wait for the robbers to give up. Poke a hole in the screen big enough for one bee.
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It wouldn’t hurt to give the weak colony another frame of brood in the coming days.
This might be a radical idea, however I’m wondering how you’d go making a trap-in box so that you can close up your hives before daybreak, then use the trap-in box to trap all of the robber bees. That way they wont return to their own hives to advertise the position of your hives. Then after a few hours or half a day, you could open yours up again. I wonder if that would work?