Laying workers

[JonnyPicklechin]

I missed the chance to requeen a queenless colony. Have got laying workers. Have read on various options and have decided to just shake out.

I picked up a small swarm yesterday. Could I put the swarm NUC at the place of the old queenless hive to bolster it? Or will this incite a "special military operation"?

 

[Boston Bees]

I missed the chance to requeen a queenless colony. Have got laying workers. Have read on various options and have decided to just shake out.

I picked up a small swarm yesterday. Could I put the swarm NUC at the place of the old queenless hive to bolster it? Or will this incite a "special military operation"?

High risk of the flyers killing the swarm queen I think. Tempting though

 

[Erichalfbee]

You could cage her for a couple of days?

 

[Boston Bees]

You could cage her for a couple of days?

That would involve going into a swarm nuc the day after capturing it though, before they have had a chance to settle ... probably a virgin in there too ...

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

I'll try it for the good of learning. And report back. I can always add another queen when they've settled down....

 

[Heather]

having shaken to DLW a distance away, the decent bees should return to their hive. Maybe newspaper join them on top of the swarm.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

having shaken to DLW a distance away, the decent bees should return to their hive

All the bees will return to the hive - laying workers' wings don't drop off

 

[Heather]

The layers become slightly heavier so don't fly so well

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A fallacy

 

[Erichalfbee]

Slimmed though still fat queens fly.
Laying workers do too.
They just get assimilated in any receiving hive and give up laying.

 

[magor]

i think a reason maybe them give up laying is the worker brood smell/pheromones

so it might works if you shaken em(just for the shock?) but in them return in hive find a brood worker frame with eggs also you put in alongside with any store frames them had but not them laying frames and either let em build QC from eggs or try may introduce them a Q later if/when you see them stopped layin or give em a QC if em stop layin and when worker brood sealed

 

[Finman]

Give a frame of fresh larvae into the hive and worker laying stops. Bees feel themselves normal.
I use to give the worst laying queen to the hive and I see what happens then. I do not remember that such colony has killed the laying queen.

It is strange that modern version about worker layers is 20 years old but that old legend about shaking bees continues its life.

Read about worker policing

 

[Michael Palmer]

Depending on the time of year and the remaining strength of the colony...I would add a frame of emerging brood and a ripe queen cell. Something we have to do in the mating nucs after missing to have a mated queen on two successive catches. Most LW colonies attempt to raise a queen cell. You'll see queen cups in supercedure cell locations that have multiple eggs. Pretty much the definitive diagnosis of the colony with multiple eggs in the worker cells that indicate LW. In a study in the American Bee Journal from years ago...when two groups of stocks...Italian and Russian...were given ripe queen cells when LW had taken over. 75% of both groups successfully mated the virgin queens.

 

[Antipodes]

Depending on the time of year and the remaining strength of the colony...I would add a frame of emerging brood and a ripe queen cell. Something we have to do in the mating nucs after missing to have a mated queen on two successive catches. Most LW colonies attempt to raise a queen cell. You'll see queen cups in supercedure cell locations that have multiple eggs. Pretty much the definitive diagnosis of the colony with multiple eggs in the worker cells that indicate LW. In a study in the American Bee Journal from years ago...when two groups of stocks...Italian and Russian...were given ripe queen cells when LW had taken over. 75% of both groups successfully mated the virgin queens.

Are you saying to treat the swarm in the nuc (post #1) as if it is a laying worker colony?

 

[elainemary]

I missed the chance to requeen a queenless colony. Have got laying workers. Have read on various options and have decided to just shake out.

I picked up a small swarm yesterday. Could I put the swarm NUC at the place of the old queenless hive to bolster it? Or will this incite a "special military operation"?

Hi I’ve had laying workers before. I did ‘fix’ it on one colony though without shaking out. Think the key is whether you catch them early enough before more laying workers develop. They can be as few as 5% ish of laying workers in the colony at the beginning but increase to 50% of more over time

This is what I did: added a frame of larva, then added a queen cell, they tore this down; but I added another frame of open larva and another cell and they accepted it. I still have the queen (blue marked). She’s just gone into a Nuc for swarm control, has served me and her colony well over the last 2 seasons

I’d give it a try, nothing to lose and you might be able to turn them around if caught early and learn from the experience. Good luck, let us know how you get on!

 

[elainemary]

The layers become slightly heavier so don't fly so well

Don’t think this is true. I’ve had a Nuc with laying workers, I moved them 100 m away and put a Nuc on the original spot. They flew back and started laying multiple eggs the next day.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don’t think this is true. I’ve had a Nuc with laying workers, I moved them 100 m away and put a Nuc on the original spot. They flew back and started laying multiple eggs the next day.

Spot on.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As I said at the start - it's another one from the beekeeping book of myths and magic.

 

[polymath]

I missed the chance to requeen a queenless colony. Have got laying workers. Have read on various options and have decided to just shake out.

I picked up a small swarm yesterday. Could I put the swarm NUC at the place of the old queenless hive to bolster it? Or will this incite a "special military operation"?

Read the last issue of BeeCraft it explains very clearly how to deal with it. In effect you need a frame of brood placed in there every 4 - 5 days until such time as the bees start to make a queen cell, at that point you can either re-queen or use the queen cell, could take 2 - 3 weeks to achieve, they explain the science behind it very clearly.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Are you saying to treat the swarm in the nuc (post #1) as if it is a laying worker colony?

No, I'm talking about a way to save a laying worker colony that actually can be successful.