The differences in appearance between a laying worker and a proper queen bee

Beejames · July 05, 2014, 04:46:53 PM

I was re-queening a hive that had no brood and was warned that I should kill any laying workers. Not sure what to look for. Do they look like an average worker bee or a queen.

Beejames :(

Wolfer · July 05, 2014, 05:00:09 PM

Yes, they look like any other bee. There are usually several of them. You can't find them and kill them. You can suppress them with brood or you can shake them out and remove their hive. The other bees will go in somewhere else but the laying workers won't be allowed in.

I'm talking out my butt here since I've never had a laying worker issue.

Unless the hive has been out of brood for 3 week or more you probably don't have a laying worker problem.

sterling · July 06, 2014, 12:24:55 AM

Why does the one with the advice about laying workers think you have a laying worker? If there are laying workers there should be eggs or drone brood. If your hive is queenless they should take a queen if there is no brood or eggs or queen cells. If you have another hive put a frame with some open brood in and see how they react.

sc-bee · July 06, 2014, 02:36:55 PM

Quote from: Beejames on July 05, 2014, 04:46:53 PM
and was warned that I should kill any laying workers. Not sure what to look for. Do they look like an average worker bee or a queen.

Maybe he/she can teach us all :-D Sounds like they are putting the cart before the horse. Definitely easier to pull it than push it ;)

But seriously if you see no signs of a laying worker, then requeen in a normal manner.

capt44 · July 07, 2014, 12:12:56 AM

To get rid of laying workers this is what I do.
Take the hive bodies about 100 yards away and shake and brush the bees off each frame.
The idea is the nurse bees and laying workers never leave the hive so are confused and lost when brushed off in the grass.
They will probably die.
Put that frame in a hive box and close the top to keep bees off the beeless frames.
I use a large trash bag.
Now that you have all the frames cleared of bees take the frames and boxes back to the original hive location.
There will be bees waiting on you there.
Rebuild the hive placing the frames in the boxes.
The bees will move in and make house.
The next day the bees realize they are queenless.
That is the time to re-queen the hive.
I've had to do this several times and it works.

Michael Bush · July 07, 2014, 03:55:16 PM

Laying workers:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm

If you have laying workers there are thousands of them. You cannot kill them.

Beejames · July 07, 2014, 04:13:03 PM

Thanks to all of the beekeepers that have responded to my inquiry. Sounds like the laying workers do not have the queen like appearance at all and there are likely many present in the hive. The cure would seem to involve dealing with them to open things up for a new queen.

Thanks again,

BeeJames

Michael Bush · July 08, 2014, 12:55:41 PM

A frame of open brood every week for three weeks will "cure" the laying workers.

GLOCK · July 08, 2014, 06:46:35 PM

When I have that problem I put a nuc on top with a piece of plywood cut to fit the deep and cut the size of the nuc out of that slap a piece of paper over the opening and set the nuc on with in a week you have a nice lay hive again I have done this a few times now and it never failed yet. But then again you need to have a nuc with a laying queen.