Just add a frame of eggs and larvae

How many times have you heard this, or even said it?  I've said it myself so many times, and in the past few days I've seen it posted on a number of Facebook pages. It seems like this is the go-to solution to so many problems. It's the most common solution to having no queen, or suspected of having no queen. The problem though is it doesn't take into account the reason for the problem. In my first year keeping bees I lost a queen, actually lost more than one and I still lose queens. In this particular case it had been a little over two weeks since I'd been in the box. Went in and there were capped brood, no signs of eggs or any larvae. I was advised, and having read as much as possible, I added a brood frame with eggs and larvae. Checked it in four days also as advised to see if they were making queens. They weren't making queens so it was assumed that there was already a queen in the box. Probably an unmated virgin or recently mated but just not laying yet. Waited another week, no sign of eggs and again I was advised to add a brood frame. So I did. Again no queens. I ended up putting in three frames of brood, they never made a queen and I wound up with laying workers. Maybe the laying workers were there before the first or second brood frame, I don't know but I don't think so. There were no capped cells of any kind, no brood and no drones. I spent a month trying to fix a problem that could not be fixed. Since this I've done more research and spoken with a lot of people. There are times when a colony of bees can get queen-less and simply not make a new queen. Like they just don't care or something. I don't know any way to determine this but I've seen it happen more than once. It's like they get past some arbitrary day, maybe it's 22 or 26 or 30. Maybe it's weather and some other factors but it happens. When I look back on the colony I tried to save, with all of the resources I put into it, I could have made a new split. I think it's important to consider that just putting in a frame of brood may not fix the problems. Are there other options? Actually there are. Factors need to be weighed. How big is the sick colony? Can it simply be merged with another? Do I have enough resources to invest a single frame of brood? Is it worth more than one frame? I've had more laying worker boxes since that one. We, as a club, have tried pretty much every published method to fix laying workers. What we learned is that you can't fix laying workers. My philosophy is to simply shake the bees out in the yard. Any food in frames are added to a strong colony. I just had to do this last week. My current plan on a relatively strong queen-less colony is a single frame of brood for just a few days. I'll add the frame, check it in four days and if there are no queen cells, it's going back where it came from. My other thoughts are to put in a frame of grafts. Or if not grafts, cut a strip of eggs and larvae, press it into a frame vertically oriented and see if they make queens. I don't believe that a box of bees that won't make a queen are worth keeping. Sometimes we just need to accept there will be some losses.