Failed virgin,when to add laying queen

[Skinfaxi]

Hello
I have colony that has been queenless about 6 weeks. It had a small hatched QC but not sure if the virgin is alive.The colony has the queenless humm. Can i unite this colony with a queen right nuc. Or could the virgin kill the laying queen from the nuc, if shes alive?

 

[Erichalfbee]

You need a test frame which is a frame with eggs and young larvae in it. You put this (without bees) in the hive you suspect is queen less. If there is no queen they will make queen cells on it which you should be able to see in three days.
If there are no queen cells made you will have to go looking for her before you unite or your laying queen may well be killed

 

[oliver90owner]

If it has been queenless, as you state, for about 6 weeks you should have done something about it at least a month ago!

And now you are not sure if the colony is queenless? Now you reckon it has a virgin queen? Find out before you do anything else.

 

[Skinfaxi]

I had a swarm on the hive about three weeks ago. They are in a nuc but the virgin is really small almost the size of a worker. The full hive colony had one small QC in it. So not sure if thats the swarm from the hive. I saw them and nuced them as its been really raining a lot at the time. The weather has been really bad the last month. Not sure how long a average virgin can wait for mating. Only one of our queens have mated so far. With 3 nucs i am still waiting for virgins to mate.
I will put a test frame in as advised.
Thank you