Like Matt, I have always wondered if a hive with laying workers could be
made productive by giving it a few frames of sealed larvae, plus a frame of
eggs. As we all know, it is almost impossible to get them to accept a queen
from a cage.
In the end, I have never tried to have them raise their own queen, because
the math doesn't make sense. In order to have laying workers, a hive has to
have been queenless for around 5 weeks...an eternity in bee-life. Thus, the
workers present are "old", and perhaps not capable of producing the royal
jelly necessary to raise a good queen. Royal jelly is normally produced by
newly-emerged bees! But even if they could produce a queen from a 1-3 day
larvae, it would then take approximately another 5 weeks for her to emerge,
mate, and start laying...and then another 3 weeks for the first worker
larvae to emerge. That is 8 weeks, on top of the 5 or so all ready elapsed.
Sound like the end of summer and a hive with bees and no stores?
A hive of laying workers will accept a queen if she is introduced along with
all the other bees, larvae, etc. from a 4-5 frame nuc. As many have
suggested, from spring until late summer or early fall every beekeeper
should keep at least 2 nucs on hand, or 1 nuc for every ten hives, whichever
is the greater number. It is rare to go into winter with the nucs still
intact. And even if you do, a very high percentage will survive the winter
just fine, even as far north as we are.
Lloyd
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Lloyd Spear Owner, Ross Rounds, Inc. The finest in comb honey production.
Visit our web site at http://www.rossrounds.com.
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