Date:    Thu, 1 Sep 2016 05:33:30 -0700
From:    randy oliver <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Laying Workers

>Could you please explain the reason for going to the trouble of using the
double screen first?

From Master Beekeeper Rusty Burlew, http://honeybeesuite.com/tag/laying-workers/: "

However, the laying workers produce enough queen-like pheromone that the colony will not accept a new queen, so introduced queens are usually killed. No matter what incantation you whisper over the hive, or how surreptitiously you introduce a new queen, most of the time it won’t work.

Dumping the bees at the edge of the apiary (to rid yourself of not-so-agile laying workers) and introducing a new queen to the returning bees doesn’t work either because you haven’t cured the problem—the colony is still without open worker brood. The workers will kill the new queen before she can produce any brood, and more of the workers will begin to lay and take the place of those you tossed out.

Saving the colony
The only way to save the colony is to suppress the laying workers’ ovaries. This can be done by adding open worker brood to the hive. But just as it took a while to develop the workers’ ovaries, it will take a while to suppress them. If you add a queen too soon after adding the open brood, the workers will kill her too.

One of the best ways to save the hive is to introduce a frame of open worker brood every few days until the bees begin to raise a supersedure queen. How often you have to add brood depends on how old the brood is. Eggs remain eggs for three days and larvae are open for about 5.5 to 6 days. Assuming that most pheromone is produced by larvae rather than eggs, a new frame of open brood should be introduced at least once every five or six days if the larvae are very young, but more frequently if the larvae are old.

Once the colony begins to raise a queen on its own, you can either let the bees raise it or you can introduce a queen. The building of supersedure cells indicates their willingness to accept a new queen, so it is fairly safe to introduce a queen at that time.

Using the same reasoning, you can combine the laying worker hive with a nuc that contains a queen and open brood. The nuc needs to be separated by a double screen or similar device to keep the queen safe until the workers’ ovaries are fully suppressed. Allow about three weeks before combining."

Therefore, based on the above, and not having a nuc, but possessing an excellent colony w/valuable queen, I opted to protect the queen. Also, I caught the LW situation early, so population of LWs still small. So: Snelgrove board + 2 frames open brood + two weeks = no LW. Newspaper combine successful. Also, the bottom colony had an ample and continuous supply of open brood.

It was the only info I had at the time, so went with it and, at least in this instance, it worked. Apparently in your experience, the combining presents different dynamics from attempting the direct introduction of a queen to the LWs. 

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