First thing to do is LOOK FOR YOUR QUEEN. It helps if she is marked when the colony is small. If you cannot see the queen, then look for capped worker brood and eggs. If you see capped worker brood and eggs, don't worry about finding the queen. She is there and all is fine with the colony. Close them up and leave. 

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If you cant find her, take a look at this video to help track her down - FIND A QUEEN.

Day 0: If you cant find the queen and the colony has no eggs or capped worker brood, there may be an issue. First thing to do is to establish if the bees have swarmed recently. If they have, leave for 3-4 weeks to see if they can get one of the virgins from the swarming process mated. If they haven't swarmed, add a single frame of eggs into the middle of the brood nest and then leave the colony alone for 8 days to test the emergency response. 

Day 8: After 8 days, take your marked frame of eggs and see if they have started to create emergency queen cells (see above). If they have started to create cells then your colony is hopelessly queenless. You now have 2 options. Option 1: Remove all cells except one and leave it to open mate.

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Option 2 (recommended): Remove ALL emergency cells and continue process below.