Problems with Matilda

I start my first post with a problem. On April 28th, I had a full inspection of Matilda after a long period of rain that started since April 22nd. I had an easy time beekeeping since I started in July 09'. Even through the winter, the bees kept really well and there was always at least 7 frames of bees throughout winter. I had a 100% survival rate from Colony Collapse Disorder. Really glad that I was not affected by CCD at all, maybe because of the natural beekeeping methods I use and also the varied plants the bees get access to in the community garden. In the photo below shows me working with Matilda in mid February on a sunny day filled out with bees.

So back to what happen on April 28th. While going through the brood chamber in Matilda, every frame I pulled up there was at least 1 queen cell capped. I found ten. 10 QUEEN CELLS! and I did not see the old queen. The 10th cell I saw, the capping has been nicely sliced open and my heart just sank. I then went through all the frames one more time looking for the new queen. I spotted her pretty quickly but I was still hoping to see the old queen. Reading the frames more intently, I did not see any new eggs laid. The youngest larvae I saw was a newly hatched one about 3 days old and there were brood in all stages. For 10 more minutes, I went through the frame but the old queen is officially lost. I am guessing she was murdered by the new queen or kicked out on April 25th 2010. My heart aches. She was a good queen, laid excellently, her ladies were good at conserving honey intake during the winter and stored lots of honey.

Its already been a month and the new queen has started laying but only laying drones. She is unfertilized and now every 2 weeks I transfer capped brood frames from Bombay. Bombay is doing really well. Glad I got 2 hives to help each other out in times like this. I've since ordered a new queen but she will only arrive in 2 weeks time. Hope Matilda survives well till then.