Hi All
 
I checked on one of my favourite beeyards yesterday and I found that
something I tried had worked. We have a peculiar quirk around here
that workers will lay eggs if a queen dies and these will be raised
and develop into other workers as opposed to drones as normal. So,
when one of my hives developend laying workers it rapidly atrophied
into a lethargic irritating five frame hive with a bad laying
pattern. I tried to requeen it with some queens I raised but to no
success. Finally, I had this idea. I caught a huge swarm, transferred
all the dodgey brood and then put it in the place where the laying
worker hive had been. I then moved the laying worker hive two steps
to the left and let the bees go on foraging and returning to the new
hive. Then (I forgot to mention I had caught the queen in the good
swarm), I dumped all the bees from the laying worker hive into the
main hive, and smoked them to bits, so they would not fight. The idea
was now that probably only the laying workers would still smell
strong enough to be killed by the strong swarm. I then put the queen
in a cage back in the hive and now two weeks later they have released
her (put a jelly baby in the hole as a releaser) and she has capped
healthy brood in a nice pattern. No laying workers in sight.
 
 
Is this a sensible way of dealing with hives that go laying worker?
I am making the assumption that a laying worker that lays drone eggs
will be treat in the same fashion. Has anybody else tried it and how
successful has it been if so? I fear that there will be less swarms
coming up, and I still have two other LW hives, but do not want to
risk damaging two swarms if this one success was a fluke?
 
Keep well
 
 
Garth
 
---
Garth Cambray       Kamdini Apiaries
15 Park Road        Apis melifera capensis
Grahamstown         800ml annual precipitation
6139
Eastern Cape
South Africa               Phone 27-0461-311663
 
3rd year Biochemistry/Microbiology    Rhodes University
In general, generalisations are bad.
Interests: Flii's and Bees.