Drone laying workers

[Frenchie]

Due to illness my bees have been neglected. An inspection yesterday revealed a queenless colony,with no worker brood,but lots of drone brood. As I understand it if I introduce a queen to this colony she will probably be killed,so is the colony lost. Would they make a new queen if I could introduce a frame with eggs on.

 

[Finman]

Due to illness my bees have been neglected. An inspection yesterday revealed a queenless colony,with no worker brood,but lots of drone brood. As I understand it if I introduce a queen to this colony she will probably be killed,so is the colony lost. Would they make a new queen if I could introduce a frame with eggs on.

Buy a laying queen. No idea to wait one month that they do a new

But s frame of larvae may reviele things what is going there.

There may be too a drone laying queen.

 

[maddydog]

How many worker bees are there? Is it laying workers or drone laying queen? How old are the workers? Do you (likely) want to waste 30 euros?

A few questions only you can answer. Personally I would Chuck them out in front of the other hives assuming your other colonies are in decent fettle.

 

[eltalia]

Due to illness my bees have been neglected. An inspection yesterday revealed a queenless colony,with no worker brood,but lots of drone brood. As I understand it if I introduce a queen to this colony she will probably be killed,so is the colony lost. Would they make a new queen if I could introduce a frame with eggs on.

You are going to strive to come up with an approximate last known
sighting of capped worker brood for anyone to get even close
to a solution - one that *may* work out.

Commisserations on that poor health event... nobody needs such
times.

Bill

 

[Frenchie]

Thanks for all advice. If I remember correctly a drone laying queen will lay in a neat pattern,whereas laying workers are more haphazard
In my case all the drone brood has been layed in a line along the bottom of several frames.

 

[beeno]

Is your drone brood in all stages or just capped? If it is all capped there is a possibility that you have a virgin in there.

 

[eltalia]

(edit)
In my case all the drone brood has been layed in a line along the bottom of several frames.

So specificly in cells built for purpose.
I'd wait it out.
Clearly you know LWS from DLQ, but this new info says a new queen is
starting out.

Bill

 

[Anduril]

You have 3 other hives, what I do in these situations is add a frame of brood with nurse bees from each hive, into your laying worker hive. The 3 frames with nurse bees should be sufficient to suppress the urge of the laying workers and minimal, if any fighting using 3 frames. They will then draw queen cells which you can use (not ideal). But it works as a stop gap if you decide to buy a queen. I do this usually in the spring, if they have gone queenless during the winter.

 

[enrico]

It doesn't sound like laying workers to me......sounds more like a young queen. I would give her a bit longer if she was mine!
E

 

[thedozzer]

It doesn't sound like laying workers to me......sounds more like a young queen. I would give her a bit longer if she was mine!
E

we had what we thought was a Queenless hive, but think that she was just a bit slow to get going, as the QC that they drew with test frames wouldn't have had enough time to hatch, mate and lay the capped worker brood we saw, but it wouldn't hurt to put some test frames in as others have suggested, as it keeps new nurse bees emerging keeping the colony viable, and the brood pheromone helps stop laying workers if you do have them.

From some of the books and old threads on here, it can take up to 4-5 weeks to mate and get her egg laying sorted so she releases one sperm per egg as Polyhive points out.

Where the eggs are placed in the cell can tell if its workers or queen, as its general thought that workers cannot lay neatly in the bottom/centre of the cell like the queen, but no doubt some little darlings have managed it, and some new queens can start with more than one egg in a cell and not get the aim quite right to begin with, so its only a guide.

 

[madasafish]

It doesn't sound like laying workers to me......sounds more like a young queen. I would give her a bit longer if she was mine!
E

"An inspection yesterday revealed a queenless colony,with no worker brood,but lots of drone brood" sounds like a DLQ or laying workers to me. But WDIK?

 

[GuyNir]

"An inspection yesterday revealed a queenless colony,with no worker brood,but lots of drone brood" sounds like a DLQ or laying workers to me. But WDIK?

+1

 

[eltalia]

"An inspection yesterday revealed a queenless colony,with no worker brood,but lots of drone brood" sounds like a DLQ or laying workers to me. But WDIK?

" In my case all the drone brood has been layed in
a line along the bottom of several frames."
[Post #5]

HUGE clue in that.. FTTDK
/slough wink/

Bill

 

[Anduril]

Wait a bit longer see what happens.

 

[Frenchie]

Thanks for all the replies, begins to look like a virgin queen which is much better news. Will give it a couple of weeks and see what happens.

 

[Millet]

Thanks for all the replies, begins to look like a virgin queen which is much better news. Will give it a couple of weeks and see what happens.

To me it is not good news if you have a Virgin Queen that is laying..

 

[GuyNir]

To me it is not good news if you have a Virgin Queen that is laying..

Absolutely...
Also wondering what makes it look like a VQ?

 

[beeno]

To me it is not good news if you have a Virgin Queen that is laying..

Agreed. My comment was based on the fact that drone brood is the last to emerge 24 days and that capped drone brood or a broodless colony may very well have a virgin or a recently mated queen that has not started to lay yet. Thereof my question regarding the state of the drone brood capped or eggs and larvae. No answer to that question, but the penny may have dropped.

 

[masterBK]

What do you think is happening here ? Laying workers or young inexperienced queen ?

 

[Millet]

What do you think is happening here ? Laying workers or young inexperienced queen ?

I have a few pictures very similar of my own frames and i know what the answer was..