Laying worker can she fly ?

[RogueDrone]

As title

 

[REDWOOD]

All honeybees can fly

 

[RogueDrone]

will she fly when in lay though?

 

[REDWOOD]

Yes they can fly

 

[REDWOOD]

If you'r interested in one method
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=26595

 

[oliver90owner]

As Redwood. Even a queen in full lay can fly; just perhaps not far enough for swarming a couple of miles or more.

RAB

 

[MuswellMetro]

As Redwood. Even a queen in full lay can fly; just perhaps not far enough for swarming a couple of miles or more.

RAB

They can even fly if clipped

yes laying workers fly but may not be accepted into a hive by the guards ( if you are lucky), laying workers even in a hive can be hassled by her half sisters

 

[richardbees]

RDr - why are you asking?

If you've got a colony infected with one, shake ALL the bees out about 10ft away from the nearest hive in good weather and let them find a new home. It's worked for me and the 'laying worker' doesn't reappear.....experts here say it's the pheromones of a laying Q or maybe it's the guard bees

 

[drstitson]

yes they can fly.
and will have orientated to home.

and so traditional shake out approach relies either on them being rejected at entrance of hives OR alternatively, i would imagine possible, being "accepted" and getting switched off by pheromones.

personally i would only consider shaking out in front of strong hives.

 

[Rob55]

I recently moved a hive of either DLQ or LW (unsure which) 20 feet away and set a new hive in its place. Whatever flying bees left the hive and flew back to the original location, I have now requeened. The bees which stayed on the combs in the old hive, were destroyed. Rationale - whatever was laying drones would hopefully have had no reason to leave the combs and hence my new hive should hopefully only contain non laying workers and no dlq.

Jury is still out whether I have been successful, will have a look this weekend.

 

[richardbees]

rob

Not clear what you mean by 'requeened'. do you mean the new hive you put in it's place is a complete new colony?

rich

 

[Rob55]

No, the new hive in its place was a completely empty hive with drawn comb. Once a proportion of bees had flown into it, I then introduced a mated queen with them.

Hopefully whatever was laying drones was left in the old hive.

 

[alanf]

I recently moved a hive of either DLQ or LW (unsure which) 20 feet away and set a new hive in its place. Whatever flying bees left the hive and flew back to the original location, I have now requeened. The bees which stayed on the combs in the old hive, were destroyed. Rationale - whatever was laying drones would hopefully have had no reason to leave the combs and hence my new hive should hopefully only contain non laying workers and no dlq.

Jury is still out whether I have been successful, will have a look this weekend.

Interesting idea, let us know how you get on.

If I tried it, I would be thinking that they may not have enough young bees to build a brooding capacity for a while. Older foragers can revert to nurse duties but the colony may be weak and aging rapidly going into winter.

 

[richardbees]

Rob
a bold idea at this time of year and can see your logic, similar to an artificial swarm but with a swapped Q. However I think it's much too late for them to reach an over-wintering stasis. probably only hope would be moving to a polynuc and now shaking the original colony onto the ground!
good luck.
richard

 

[Rob55]

Have them in a poly nuc, original colony were subsequently shaken out on front of another hive (didn't want the drone layers to go into the nuc!) but unfortunately the cold and rain got them.

I know my plan probably won't work, but wanted to give it a shot anyway.

 

[drstitson]

"I recently moved a hive of either DLQ or LW (unsure which)"

why not? DLQ will lay single eggs in bottom of cells in a consistent pattern as normal but just drone brood. LW will produce less brood, scattered and with multiple eggs in cells, not on bottom.

"I know my plan probably won't work, but wanted to give it a shot anyway.
"

it worked for us - see the linked thread above - new HM has been laying for just over a week now.

our only difference wrt what you describe is that we are boosting the nuc with a another final shot of flyers (moving original hive gradually back to near new hive then removing, leaving flyers temporarily homeless) before getting shot of the residuum including layers in traditional way.

only reasons we took this approach was a) beek only has one hive; alternative was to dump (not by side of a norfolk road!) and buy a nuc in spring and b) interesting experiment for me. The colony will now be mollycoddled into and through winter.

 

[Rob55]

Brood was laid in a patch about the size of a pancake which would suggest DLQ, however the hive was without eggs or brood for 8 weeks and some of the cells had 2 eggs in which might suggest laying workers. But who knows.

Looking forward to having a quick peek this weekend to see if she has been released and if there are eggs. The main difference is that I didn't block the candy from the bees so they will have released her much sooner than your bees, which probably means greater chance of failure.

 

[mbc]

"I recently moved a hive of either DLQ or LW (unsure which)"

why not? DLQ will lay single eggs in bottom of cells in a consistent pattern as normal but just drone brood. LW will produce less brood, scattered and with multiple eggs in cells, not on bottom.

This is a bit misleading IMHO.
Even experienced beekeepers can be unsure which is happening, but generally it matters not as both should be dealt with similarly.

 

[HM Honey]

New inexperienced queens can sometimes lay two eggs in one cell, although granted, usually at the bottom of the cell.

Eggs laid on the sides of cells are usually a good indicator of LW, as apposed to DLQ.

 

[richardbees]

Rob
- good, you've done the best options, and the weather's being kind.
Let us know how it turns out...
richard