Drone laying queen

[Carolbee]

I inspected my colonies for the first time yesterday. Two of them were thriving, however I appear to have a DLQ in one of them.

I was considering putting a frame of brood with larvae and eggs into the DLQ hive and hoping that they would make a queen cell, which is what they are already attempting to do with the brood they have.

However, as they are winter bees, would this be too late to do now as I am thinking there would not be any nurse bees in a few weeks' time. Or should I just shake out the bees and start again?

Many thanks.

 

[thibault]

Same thing happened to me last year, tried so many different things to save them, at the end I just shook them off in front of my other hives, I wish I had done that earlier, if you go for that option, you can still do a split later in the year and you'll already have some drawn frames


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[Poly Hive]

Too early for raising queens so take the hit now and make increase later.

PH

 

[Heather]

yes, grab queen, squish, shake out bees, get rid. Start afresh. Those bees will drift to boost another hive.

 

[Angularity]

Did this on Saturday. Something happened, and I dropped the Queen's body. An hour later there was a sad cluster of bees around her body. I felt really bad.

 

[Jambo]

yes, grab queen, squish, shake out bees, get rid. Start afresh. Those bees will drift to boost another hive.

Hi Heather - why do you suggest to shake out rather than unite? Thanks.

 

[Poly Hive]

There is a risk, some would say a considerable risk, that your mated queen could be killed by the laying workers.

Not a risk I would take, so I would respectfully suggest you shake.

PH

 

[Beefriendly]

There is a risk, some would say a considerable risk, that your mated queen could be killed by the laying workers.

If, as the original poster stated, there is a DLQ present then there won't be any laying workers yet.
Shaking is simpler at this time of year and you get rid of the scrub drones that haven't emerged yet. You could Newspaper unite, but then you will get more drones.
BUT remove DLQ before doing either!!!!"

 

[For want of a better word]

There is a risk, some would say a considerable risk, that your mated queen could be killed by the laying workers.

Not a risk I would take, so I would respectfully suggest you shake.

PH

Also gets the bees onto nice new comb... shake AND then unite with your bestest laying queen!

Yeghes da

 

[ShinySideUp]

Why do the bees tolerate a drone laying queen rather than supercede her? If they don't supercede in this situation what other situation causes them to supercede?

 

[Curley]

Why do the bees tolerate a drone laying queen rather than supercede her? If they don't supercede in this situation what other situation causes them to supercede?

Well at the risk of sounding like the tractor man, think about it. If she's a drone layer then she can't lay fertilized eggs to produce a queen from.
Supercedure is because the workers aren't happy with her for some reason. Usually associated with older queens not laying enough eggs or possibly damaged or imperfect in some way - leg missing etc. Not well mated enough could come into that category.

 

[Jambo]

If, as the original poster stated, there is a DLQ present then there won't be any laying workers yet.
Shaking is simpler at this time of year and you get rid of the scrub drones that haven't emerged yet. You could Newspaper unite, but then you will get more drones.
BUT remove DLQ before doing either!!!!"

Thanks. Yes based on what I have read, for workers to start laying there needs to be a lack of queen pheromone AND a lack of brood pheromone. Assuming drone brood has the same pheromone as worker (?) then a DLQ satisfies neither of those requirements.

I take the point on it being simpler though!