Through much experimenting I was able to create a laying worker colony. :-D that's sort of true, my second year I wanted to make nukes, so that being said I took out a few queen cells from a hive and left one or two. After inspecting all my hives many times I never saw sign of a queen in the hive I removed the capped queens from, so I added a frame of eggs and brood to see if they would make a queen cell. I checked it after a week or so and found 1 capped queen and that's when I noticed that I had a laying worker.
Will the capped queen be enough to stop the laying worker once she hatches and mates? Like I said they made this queen not a different hive.
How long did this colony stay queen less "with out" any brood? :) d2
are you sure you dont have a young just getting the hang of it queen?
put in a frame of brood-it will readjust the bees to a more normal mode--RDY-B
Definitely a laying worker, capped drone cells and multiple eggs in each cell. Not sure how long it was queenless, I was more interested in the nukes.
move the laying worker off its stand and put a queen right nuc in its place. by the end of the day you will have a strong nuc. after a couple of days you can shake out the rest or just let it die
http://bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm (http://bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm)
Thanks Michael, your shake and forget method, once the laying worker is shaken to another hive will she revert back to her old duties or will the colony ball her? I don't want to turn a strong colony into a laying worker colony. This method will work great if the queen cell that I found in the LW colony hasn't hatched and is being mated.
Evan--you have a queen cell that is caped in the hive that is a laying worker-?
if Im reading this right thats what Im to understand--this is not a hopeless case
let the cell hatch out--frame of brood will help the bees restore pheromones that
keep hive in balance---
it was the lack of these pheromones that prompted some worker bees to start laying -
the pheromones suprese the overys and egg laying--any worker can lay eggs--
this is a easy fix for -most people dont have the patience for laying worker hives
but in this case it is not hopeless--RDY-B
If you you want a MB answer then just just go to his page and thank him there or message him on there and he will send you a link as he always does. If you ask a question and get some answers don't reply thank you MB.
>Thanks Michael, your shake and forget method, once the laying worker is shaken to another hive will she revert back to her old duties or will the colony ball her?
I don't know for sure, but it works out. They might stop them at the door and kill them or they might let them in. But they have a different attitude when begging to be let into a hive that is not theirs, than they do when they think they are defending their own home.