Laying workers

[comish29]

How do you confirm you have a laying worker?  And when you do, how do you "right" the colony, so that you end up with a worker-laying queen?

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm

[comish29]

Thank you Michael

[Robo]

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,23359.0.html
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,23161.0.html
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,17867.0.html

[scdw43]

I shake them out and put the combs on another hive. I don't worry about those bees I put them back to work as foragers for another hive. I don't think  it is how many boxes of bees I have, it is how many working hives with laying queens I have.. Without a queen you have a box of dying bees that will all be dead in a month.

[Kathyp]

http://beeinformed.org/2011/05/laying-worker-2/drone-brood-from-laying-worker-2/

this is what it looks like.  i shake them out and let them join other hives.  put the old hive away so that they can't return to it.  they will boost the numbers of the other hives.

[beeghost]

I do the same thing.............just shake them out to join other hives. I have done two shake outs of my own hives this year and recently shook out a garden tractor tire removal as they had a laying worker as well, that was a bummer as it was a feral hive.

You can also add a frame of open brood/eggs each week for three weeks, but I personally opt for shaking them out then do a split of a strong hive back into the "empty" hive in a week or two.

[BjornBee]

We do not usually shake out and "store" the boxes and comb. You still need to place the comb somewhere since you have honey, many unhatched drones, etc., to do something with. So we place the laying worker colony on top of a stronger colony and do a newspaper combine.

http://www.bjornapiaries.com/badbeekeeping.html

Read the part about laying worker colonies.

You also run the risk of having many bees bum-rushing another hive when shaking out bees, having the queen balled for protection from her own bees, and fighting. We find the newspaper combine the least impacting and risk in dealing with laying workers, with the smallest chance of something going wrong.

[gundalf]

I have the same laying worker problem and plan to add a frame of brood weekly for a while to see if I can right it...   What do I do with the frame that I remove?   Place it in the queen right hive that I stole the good frame from???   Help!!!

[asprince]

I have the same laying worker problem and plan to add a frame of brood weekly for a while to see if I can right it...   What do I do with the frame that I remove?   Place it in the queen right hive that I stole the good frame from???   Help!!!

Yep.


Good Luck,

Steve

[BjornBee]

I have the same laying worker problem and plan to add a frame of brood weekly for a while to see if I can right it...   What do I do with the frame that I remove?   Place it in the queen right hive that I stole the good frame from???   Help!!!

So you have a hive with no new brood being produced for at least the past 31 days. Probably many drones, and far less nurse bees. And this is the hive you now encourage to raise a new quality queen?

Ok...so you move over a  frame for lets say...the next three or four weeks. They do eventually raise a queen after the brood shuts down the laying workers, which will take time. This queen is raised, goes out and mates, and now lays eggs, which takes 21 days to develop. Another 10-12 days to become productive field bees. able to contribute to the hive.

What are we talking about? Mid-August before you turn this hive around? How many visits, frames of brood, and resources are going to be used? You run the risk as the summer goes by from robbing, small hive bettles, and disease taking foothold. Right now, you have a disfunctional colony. With everything out of whack.

As Steve said.....Good luck! You might actually need it.

There has to be a better way.  ;)

Please keep us informed as this plays out. It might be interesting.