Well, I have another post telling the tales of my laying worker hive. But I wanted to share this experience with you all. I had been trying to save a laying worker hive all summer by giving it frames of open brood until it would make a queen. Well the open brood totally suppressed the laying workers and they were trying to make a queen, but it never panned out to anything. Part of the problem I was having was the population was going down at the same time and I should have been giving them frames of capped brood as well.
The reason I did not give them any frames of capped brood, is the only hive I could take the brood from was finally starting to make some honey and I did not want to decrease the population in my one and only good hive. (I only had 2 other hives)
Well the wax moths got to this hive and I finally had to shake them out onto the ground, which I did on Sunday. The amazing thing that I want to share is, they were totally accepted by my strong hive which sits about 4 feet away. It was unbelievable to see them going into this hive with no fighting going on. I guess the bees know who to invite in.
With this knowledge I have now, I might just shake them out onto the ground right away if it ever happens again.
Take care
Annette
did the forager bees go to the new location or the old one?
Jim
I just did that with a small weak hive, they didn't have a queen at all , they even killed the new one I introduced, finally in desperation I did the same, just dumped them out and moved frames, I had no foragers looking for more than 20 mins for the old hive they totally went to the strong.
Just what I had to do last May also. The experienced people around here are telling me there is a noticeable decline in the ability of the local bees to raise their own queens. I have no way to tell if that's the case being new to this business.
Annette,
You have made a very wise choice. From everything I have read this choice was the best for your situation. I believe I will be right behind you in this choice with my laying worker hive. We shall see in a few days.
Thanks for posting this experience.......Corinne
The nurse bees on the ground went right into the new hive and the foragers did cluster in a large ball at the old site clinging to the hive stand. I was worried when I saw that, but 1/2 hour later most of them found the new hive and went in. By evening time around 5:00PM, they had all gone in. None on the ground.
It was a good experience.
Good luck Corinne.
Mustbeenuts, you had the same problem I had.