Laying workers

[elvydas]

I noticed one of my hives has become a laying worker hive. The advice I am getting from some of my fellow keepers  is that introducing a new queen(if I can get one) will be useless because the chance is she will be mauled and probably killed. They are recommending killing off the whole hive. My question is as such. Is there any way to save the bees that are not the culprits???      Joe

[Finsky]

Give from another hive frame where is young larvae. Bees begin to raise emercengy cells. Laying workers disapear. Then you give it new laying queen.

[Joe]

Don't kill off the whole hive, follow Finsky's advice and place a frame of eggs from another hive into this one so that the bees can create a new queen of their own.

A recent thread on laying workers can be found here.

Near the bottom of that thread Finsky linked to a PDF file titled: "Conflict in the Bee Hive: Worker Reproduction and Worker Policing."  It's really interesting and a good read, here is the link again for convenience: Link

[Brian D. Bray]

Anytime a laying worker is encountered it is best to opt for the frame of eggs method of correcting the situation was the bees will raise their own queen and the laying workers will either stop or be killed by the other workers.
Once the new queen is operational it is then possible to requeen with a queen from an outside source.  Trying to requeen directly to a laying worker hive is usually an act of futility.
The best solution is to catch a queenless hive before it goes laying worker in order for it to accept the queen readily, but  the solution can still be the frame of brood from another hive.  
Put in the frames and see if they build supercedure cells.  If they don't then the only remaining option is shake and/or combine.

[Michael Bush]

A laying worker hive often won't make a queen with the first frame of brood.  But if you put another in a week later the odds improve and another a week later is almost a sure thing.

It depends on how far you have to drive to do all of this and how many bees are in the laying worker hive.  If there's not much it's simpler to just move the equipment, shake them out, put the equipmenton the other hives and walk away.