Queenless hive or not?

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Alan
"26/7/16 - 8 sealed Qcells; 7 frames with sb;"
They were replaced with a virgin on the 31/7/16

I think if that was going to have worked the queen would have mated within a week of being released and been laying within 10 days of that so a max of about 3 weeks

Your sealed brood will all be hatched long ago about 12 days or so after you found it sealed
I'm guessing they were hatching about mid August so those bees are getting on for about 4 weeks old now

I think its too late for anything but a laying queen now
You could combine them with another hive but that might be fairly pointless if the bees are all older

The problem still exists there possibly another duff queen in there
I might be tempted try a small patch of lava or grafts to see if that still is the case because useless queens frequently disappear
One day later you can see if they have made any starts
Failing that sometimes smoke can help because the duff queen heads to the honey with the rest of the bees

Lots of queens stop laying at this time of year but with the queen cell issues etc I doubt that’s what’s happening here with your hive Alan