Drone-laying Workers update and query

[Bryanthebee]

myth

I think this is a bit of a myth - nothing to stop them flying I'm aware of. The reason for shaking them out in front of other hives is that they will simply find homes in other Q+ colonies - see the Bush Farms link in Hivemakers post

The ground on which i shock my bees on last year still had pockets of bees bunched together, to which i think is the workers trying to keep the laying worker warm which they think is the queen.

but it is said that laying queens and laying workers cannot fly as thay are to fat with eggs unless they slim down befor leaving.

 

[Voltemand]

Thanks Bryan. Good advice.

 

[Hivemaker.]

but it is said that laying queens and laying workers cannot fly as thay are to fat with eggs unless they slim down befor leaving.

Whoever said that is talking complete rubbish.

 

[VEG]

Hivemaker have you ever had a drone layer return to a hive after being shook out of the hive?
I though the reason for doing this, was that they dont fly or get back to the hive.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Hivemaker have you ever had a drone layer return to a hive after being shook out of the hive?
I though the reason for doing this, was that they dont fly or get back to the hive.

Yes i have had laying workers return to the hive,and continue just the same,and i have also had perfectly good, fat mated queens fly off into the blue yonder, never to return,and they flew upwards and away,not down into the grass,two this season. Also found a clipped queen with a small knot of bees a good mile from the hive she came from,she must of hopped all the way.

There is a way to stop laying workers from flying back though,shake them out five miles away from the hive.

 

[Hombre]

Cleuseau on the case

Also found a clipped queen with a small knot of bees a good mile from the hive she came from,she must of hopped all the way..

So you don't need your eyes tested then Hawkeye . . . Just good luck, or did you really track them with your ear to the ground as legend has it?

Sounds a lot like they hitched a ride on the back of your motor and fell off some time before you found them - myth busters eat your heart out.

No adverts for laser eye surgery Pete, Tongue firmly in cheek!

 

[Hivemaker.]

They were found by an ex beekeeper,they had semi gone to ground under a sheet corrugated iron...

A hive of laying workers were forced into a ride on my truck earlier today,they came off with a bump, and are now free agents, miles from home..lol.



No need for specsavers yet.

 

[susbees]

Hivemaker have you ever had a drone layer return to a hive after being shook out of the hive?
I though the reason for doing this, was that they dont fly or get back to the hive.

Yes, we had one earlier in the summer. Never mated queen laying drone eggs in worker cells and capped all as drone. Random mess. Tipped them out a way away and three days later there were eggs again.

Sifted. Gone. Combined. So yes, DLQs can fly.

 

[Poly Hive]

I agree that feeding in frames of brood will eventually sort out a laying worker colony but personally I do not have the time or the patience to mess about like that.

Shake them in another apiary and move on.

Given it may take five frames of brood over weeks, I would far rather pinch three frames of brood and bees and create a new nuc.

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

A simple way to avoid laying workers (or a DLQ for that matter) from returning to the same hive is to shift it (or leave it where it is shaken out).

Bees will be accepted (or rejected) by the adjacent hives and the drone layers will not be able to return to what is a useless hive anyway.

If you want your hive and bees intact, then shift it say, twenty metres (in stages, over several days) and then shake the bees out at a distance. The normally non-flyers will return to the old site and the regular flyers will return to the new site. Not something that is always possible, and personally I would not even bother about it, but it would likely work if other options were unacceptable.

RAB