acebird,i did have brood comb from the hive ,8 frames worth and 2 frames of honey .they made queen cells on three of the frames.jp and i talked it over and decided to let them try to requeen themselfs.right now the temp.will get in the low 20s but will warm up to 70 by saturday then another front will be here sunday and getting in the 20s again for most of the week.im sure when she is ready for her mating flight it will be warm enough for that to happen.if all fails i will do a combine with one of my nucs.the bees were a lil pissy at first because of the pace i was doing the cutout,only had 1 1/2 hours to do it.they did calm down a bit .going through the hive with no protection is something that im comfortable doing .most of my hives i work with no protection but i do have it ready if needed.i allways use smoke though. ...schawee