drone laying queen

[enrico]

Help, a beekeeper in my group has two hives. Spring inspection has shown one queen is laying drones only, (Queen not seen) The other hive is healthy with brood and food.
I have never had a drone laying queen this early in the season.
My suggestion would be to shake the drone laying hive through a queen excluder into a new brood box and remove the queen. Add a few drone brood and all the food from the old hive and take one frame of good worker brood from the normal hive. Scrape off a bit of comb under a few healthy eggs and hope the workers make a queen cell or two. If we do this is it too early for the queen to mate, will the drones left in the hive last that long and will they mate with their own queen.
Thanks, look forward to suggestions!!!

 

[nottingham]

I myself wouldn't shake all the frames to find the Queen. I would mark a frame (with drawing pin) and take a look at it in say five days time.

Varroa love drone brood, so you could alway take a frame or 2 out and remove all the drone brood with tweezers. Trying to save as much drawn comb as you can.

Once all the drone brood have been removed you should be able to see all the varroa mites and you could put Lavender and Tea Tree Essential Oil on a cloth and wrap the frames in that cloth. When you go back to the frames a few days later any varroa that was left in the comb after removing the drone brood should now be dead. As the Essential Oil would of suffocated them. Now put the frames back into the hive and mark them with say one green and one red drawing pin. Then the next time you inspect the hive you will be able to see what the queen has laid in the marked frames

A bit long winded I know and I am sure other beeks will have something to say about it too lol.

Duncan

 

[enrico]

Bit confused, how will this help my (Presumably infertile) Queen from laying only drones?

 

[nottingham]

Bit confused, how will this help my (Presumably infertile) Queen from laying only drones?

It may not stop your queen from laying drone brood but you did say that you haven't seen the queen. So by removing drone brood you that the % of varroa down in your hive and when you go back the marked frames you can confirm that you have a queen without shaking all the frames and say losing her. She might even be laying drones first for what ever reason and you might find worker brood in the marked frames the next time you inspected.

 

[nottingham]

But I could be barking up the wrong tree.

 

[Moggs]

Hmmmm. Not sure where that was going! If it's definitely a DLQ (perhaps damaged?) then she ain't much good to you. You don't give your location and that will be important. In my area of the country I would be inclined to wait until there is a strong chance of many drones in the air (depends on your location, see). Then find and remove Q (gives time to confirm laying status). Wait until bees know that they are Q- and more receptive to some action on a frame of eggs. Introduce frame. Hurry up and wait....

Are you sure it's a DLQ, or could it be laying workers? The latter more likely to produce multiple eggs in single cells.

 

[thurrock bees]

i would find the drone laying queen and remove her, place a frame of worker eggs in there and the bees will do the rest, if you cant find the dud queen, knock all the bees outside and put back together , the dud queen will* not return.

* bee dont read books, so she may find her way back

 

[enrico]

Thanks. Not sure if it is laying workers yet as it is not my hive but have been asked to go sort it out on Saturday, just wanted a plan of attack. Brilliant answers, Thanks so much. Will probably try Moggs idea first.

 

[enrico]

By the way, South Shropshire Wales border

 

[Midland Beek]

A DLQ is often a poor and undersized specimen of a queen, ie. just the type of queen to pass through a queen excluder. I think you need to look with your eyes for her.

If it were me, at this stage of the season I would just be inclined to aim to unite the two colonies if/when the defective queen is found and killed.

More likely to be a DLQ and not laying workers. Where are the eggs positioned in each cell? laying workers are very hap-hazard and eggs are most usually not on the bottoms of the cells.

 

[Poly Hive]

The succinct version.

Find dud queen and destroy physically.

Unite with news paper.

Have a cuppa.

PH

 

[Hombre]

The lazy version.

Sling them out out in front of the good colony.

Have a cup of tea, or two.

 

[Silly_Bee]

Dlq?

Pretty convinced that my second hive has a DLQ. Last couple of inspections seem to show just capped drone cells. Can't find the queen. Having read previous replies to this thread, I'm inclined to throw all the bees out, transfer a frame or two with visible eggs from my healthy hive, and "let the bees sort themselves out".

BUT on one of the frames in the DLQ hive there seems to be a capped queen cell. Where did that come from? Is this likely? If I left things as they are, might they sort themselves out? Or should I grasp the nettle now?

Any advice most gratefully received.

 

[Beanwood]

Pretty convinced that my second hive has a DLQ. Last couple of inspections seem to show just capped drone cells. Can't find the queen. Having read previous replies to this thread, I'm inclined to throw all the bees out, transfer a frame or two with visible eggs from my healthy hive, and "let the bees sort themselves out".

BUT on one of the frames in the DLQ hive there seems to be a capped queen cell. Where did that come from? Is this likely? If I left things as they are, might they sort themselves out? Or should I grasp the nettle now?

Any advice most gratefully received.

I have exactly the same situation - can't find the DLQ anywhere. I'm thinking the 'throwing them all out' route, as although I have capped QC's, there's no way a DLQ can lay anything except drones is there?

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

I have exactly the same situation - can't find the DLQ anywhere. I'm thinking the 'throwing them all out' route, as although I have capped QC's, there's no way a DLQ can lay anything except drones is there?

Well if she was not mated very well she might have a few fertilised ova left and the girls will do a conversion trick as quick as they can.