laying woker - charged queen cups

[beesleybees]

Hi guys,

Im still very new to beekeeping but whilst inspecting my hive again today I couldnt work out whats goin on. I had a queen in this hive that i marked from a swarm i gathered last year. Last week i could not find her. There was no capped brood and i struggled to find any eggs but eventually found some. There was some empty queen cups too.

I was thinking that i may have lost the queen and have now got a laying worker. My inspection today showed that all the eggs i found last week have been capped as drone brood and are in a pitter pattern sequence on the frame, again leading me to think i have a laying worker.

I did however today find 2 queen cups that have been charged.

Does this mean i cant have a laying worker?? by this i mean, i was told laying workers only lay male (drone) eggs so why would the bees or the worker lay a drone egg in a queen cup?? am i right in thinking this??

so is it just possible ive missed the queen but if so, why is she laying drone eggs when she was laying fine last year?? and again, surely they wouldnt use the drone eggs for the queen cups

or am i completely off track with all this lol

 

[Tom Bick]

The typical sign for laying workers is multiple eggs in cells and often attached to the sides of the cells.

Laying workers can try to make queen cells but are no good.

When a queen becomes infertile she can only lay unfertilised eggs and as a result all will be drones.

As the workers don’t mate with drones they can only lay infertile eggs that will become drones.

The best thing to do is to try a test a test frame from one of your other hives and see what the bees do with that.

 

[susbees]

Sounds like the queen you got with the swarm is running out of steam: she is becoming a drone laying queen. That means she will lay more and more drone brood in worker cells "thinking" she has fertilised them when she has not and eventually only drone eggs.

A couple of charged queen cups pointing downwards in gaps in the comb, usually in the centre would indicate the bees are making another queen through supersedure, hopefully these are fertile - odds are good as she starts to go off lay.

Report back in a week...what state these cells are in and whether there are still eggs being laid.

 

[beesleybees]

Thanx guys, I will report back next week

couple of questions though, what will happen to a drone egg thats been fed on royal jelly just like a queen does. Obviously its not goin to change sex but do we get a super drone lol

 

[Midland Beek]

You get a King Bee ...

When a bee colony is well and truly up that creek without a paddle and is hopelessly queenless the bees will out of desperation try to make a new queen from any eggs they have available, including unfertilized ones ... which of course come to nothing.

If the eggs are neatly laid on the bottoms of cells just like a queen lays them, well then there is a queen of some description in there. It might be the one that came with the swarm and which has run out of sperm, or it might be a replacement one that failed to mate.

But this colony has had it.