NEWBEE Queen Abandonment!!

[yippeewahoo]

I have read many many posts and have gotten alot of ideas but would like to have some confirmation please please please. 

I harvested honey about 3 weeks ago, I have been out of town and did not check anything until today.  When I harvested there was larvae, eggs and an active queen.  Today, I found no larvae, no eggs, and the bees were capping the cells about half way out.  There were a bunch of drone caps it looked like.  I have tons and tons of bees, lots of honey stores (I think) I concentrated the bees to two deep supers.  I found several weird combs but none that looked like a queen cell. 
-why are they capping cells half way?
-Are they starving? (again there are honey stores)
-The queen is obviously gone, so I live in zone 6 on the edge of 5, in idaho, is it way to late to requeen?
-will they survive the winter without a queen?
-Should I start feeding them?

Oh yea there were lots of bees just sitting outside of the hive today like they had been laid off for the winter and enjoying the front porch, very weird today and I am worried I either killed the queen harvesting or chased her off. 
Any ideas I would appreciate it.

Thank you I appreciate any help
Phil

[riverrat]

why are they capping cells half way?  

are you sure it is not pollen you are seeing

Are they starving? (again there are honey stores)

 if there is stores they are not starving


The queen is obviously gone, so I live in zone 6 on the edge of 5, in Idaho, is it way to late to requeen?

you more than like have a queen unless you accidentally killed her when pulling honey which is unlikely. I would bet the queen has shut down for the winter.

-will they survive the winter without a queen

If you are sure you are queenless I would combine with another hive. They will not make it through the winter

-Should I start feeding them?
if the hive is light in weight I would feed

In short from what you have said I would say the hive is acting normal for this time of year

[sc-bee]

Probably just beginner jitters! As stated above it is time for queens to begin cutting back in most areas.

If you had plenty eggs, larvae, etc when you pulled honey ---- If you killed the queen you most likely would see cells now. Or a new unmated queen could be present in three weeks.

[yippeewahoo]

Thank you, I feel much better, I had a very strong queen and I have tons and tons of bees so I thought maybe I had messed that up.  Also they were still building comb or cells in the past few weeks just not eggs to them.  I will check again in a few weeks and see what they are doing.  again thanks for the advice, and yes very much beginners jitters.
Phil