Drone layer// laying workers

[TOBY-3652]

Hi im in a bit of a muddle. On the 25/may i split a hive that was going to swarm, i left one q cell that was nearly sealed.. On the 1st of july i looked in and all brood was drone so i threw all bees in grass about 20 yards away and put the box back with some drawn comb in, just to see if there was any more eggs. On the 3rd of july more eggs, so took box 100 yards and threw all in grass, then placed a queen excluder under a new box with some fresh drawn comb againe. Looked today and... Youve guessed it more eggs???. All the eggs that have been layed were in the bottom of the cells and there was only 1 in most of the cells. A very few with 2 in and none with any more than 2.. What am i to do next please. I am planning 2 unite with another when i get it sorted thanks

 

[meidel]

I had a similar problem as you with a cast swarm caught on 8th May - wasn't sure if it was a DLQ or DLWs so did the same as you a couple of weeks back, shaking them about 50yards away from the apiary site and was considering doing the test frame thing but suddenly virgin queens were on offer from a fellow beek culling QCs in his colony and I ran one in and then a few days later united them with another similar fated colony (nuc) really and lo and behold the queen was spotted on the frame.

I don't think what I did is a guarantee to work for everyone.

I have heard also that if you have DLWs and several strong colonies you could shake them in front of each of these hives.

What I would have done if I hadn't spotted the queen again was to insert a test frame every week and it should take 3 tries for the DLWs to be raising queen cells. When they do that, they're ready to accept a new queen and should be safe to unite with another Q right colony.

 

[oliver90owner]

Move the hive a good distance and then shake them out?

The queen will have no memory of the new postion and will be lost (or return to the old site).

Seems as though this is a small queen. You mention nothing of knocking down queen cells after the split. If they made more on three day old larvae, they may have thrown a cast (or two) and your better queen (from your chosen queen cell) is likely now dead (lousy weather for small cast swarms to successfully found a new colony) and the incumbent queen is a right scrub queen. Just a guess, that. One problem of apparently leaving them for five weeks, without checking them.

If the drone brood is unable to traverse the Q/E (actually there should be none emerged as yet?) you should be able to find even a scrub queen in a split. It cannot be that big!

Another alternative is to dispense with all but a couple of drawn brood frames and she should be found between them, if you are lucky.

Should not be a difficult task to find her if you have a plan and persevere.

RAB

 

[TOBY-3652]

Thanks rab will try the 2 brood frame method. There were not any drones in the hive at all. The queen excluder is still in place , i had a look last night and there were a few bees under the excluder but the layer,s have obviosly got through it because there were eggs last night. The sun is shining so will go and have a look.not hopeful of finding it though... Maybe 5th time lucky

 

[oliver90owner]

Another simple-to-do plan. But takes time...

Simply split the colony into two adjacent boxes. After three days (at most) you should know which half the queen is in.

Split that half?....

I have recently been told of a colony with a definite virgin queen (so not yet an egg layer due to it's very recent emergence), yet the colony is rife with laying workers.

This was related to me by the very reliable source (the obsever) and very unlikely to be an error on the part of that beekeeper's observations, the probability of that being practically zero.

So you may find (by extending this further along the time-line) there could possibly be laying workers and a laying queen! Never ever evidenced anything like this, myself ( not enough colonies and years of beekeeping?).

If all the eggs are in a good brood pattern, and evenly placed in the base of the cells, yours is almost certainly a drone laying queen only. Clearly, these anomalies do arise on a very few occasions, so we should all be able to recognise them if ever that small chance occurs in one of our colonies.

I am surprised that certain 'elements' on the forum do not appear to be very helpful, when help is needed. Too busy making waves instead of being useful members of the forum, I suspect. I had better not say anymore as they are almost certainly best left making waves elewhere!

RAB

 

[TOBY-3652]

well the bees were shook out in front of hives. was going 2 use 2 brood boxes and see witch one had eggs in but ive got no patience so just threw them in front of other hives. there were a few casualties but alls settled down now... shame i couldnt find the culprit.s but they have at least bumpt the numbers up in the other hives.. thanks all that replied

 

[jackbee]

I am surprised that certain 'elements' on the forum do not appear to be very helpful, when help is needed. Too busy making waves instead of being useful members of the forum, I suspect. I had better not say anymore as they are almost certainly best left making waves elewhere!

RAB

unnecessary and reported.

Such a helpful post, then let down at the last

 

[MandF]

I also reported this earlier. I suggest anyone else who found it unnecessarily provocative and insulting to do the same, maybe then they will actually do something.