I inspected today and found two of my laying worker hives had eggs. Even saw the queen in the one. Thanks to everyone who replied when I needed help with the issue.
I did not need to put any open brood frames in them. I put queen cells in them and that was it.
I suspect, I caught them early as the drone eggs were not larvae yet, let alone capped. The laying workers might still be laying, but all the eggs I saw were, one in each and centered.
Thanks again.
That's great! The one LW hive I had was one of the few times I ever saw a Buckfast queen rejected - in 38 years!
Great news. The only time I ran across a LW hive, I had the same result, they accepted a caged queen. It was my first year and they had dwindled so much, I think they were demoralized. Glad you saved it. G
Congratulations, glad it worked out for you.
Jim
Queen cells are worth doing if you have them... people often don't have them.