>How long does the queen stay out on a mating flight typically (weeks, days, or minutes or hours)?
An hour or less.
> I have two nucs I started from a hive that wanted to swarm. Nice queen cells with nice virgin queens hatching out that I saw. Now the queens are both gone and the bees trying to make more queen cells.
The virgins are not coming back if they are making more queen cells.
> I gave them some more brood and eggs but just wonder what might have happened to the nice virgins?
Dragon flys, swallows, windsheilds...