> Could some of you who know how to correct this condition
> please write me  and give me some ideas??  I understand that shaking the
> frames 30' away from the hive does not work.  I could combine the hive or
> just "off" the bad boys and try again next year.  I would really like to
> know if there is a way to get this hive back on track with out using any
> of those options.  Please e-mail me personally as not to bore the rest of
> the old timers or, if you have some real profound words of wisdom, post
> to the list.
 
Actually this is a good and one that has not been beaten to death.  And
you started out the right way: your beginning with a search is
appreciated.  The deluge of unusable material you received is unfortunate.
 Your dilemma illustrates perfectly why moderation has been instituted.
Hopefully all future logs will contain less garbage in the form of HTML
posts, huge sigs, excess quotes, binaries, etc.  And, who knows, maybe we
will get to work and clean up some of the old logs.   Volunteers?
 
Anyhow.  The most foolproof method to deal with laying workers is to
combine the colony with a good one, and split again in several days
or weeks -- after they have integrated.  This is a good strategy from
three viewpoints: 1.) It eliminates the laying workers.  2.) It puts any
bees that are not too old to be useful to work.  3.) When you make the
split, it will start off with balanced ages and also some brood from a
good colony.
 
By the time laying workers appear, a colony is generally past saving.
This method salvages any remaining value in it.
 
Allen
 
 
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