An earlier note today from a fellow subscriber referred to problems
associated with requeening a colony which contained laying workers.
 
I encountered similar problems this year with one of my colonies:
 
Through a combination of circumstances and inexperience I managed to lose
the queen in the colony.  I ordered a replacement from a reputable
supplier, but as a result of the poor weather in the UK in June and July,
there was a 4 week delay between ordering and delivery of the new queen.  I
was advised that the colony would be fine in the meantime, so I let them
be, inspecting on a couple of occasions.
 
When the new queen arrived (at the end of July), she was introduced to the
colony in a queen cage but 8 days later, when the colony was inspected, the
queen had left the cage but there was no sign of her or new brood.  What I
did discover was evidence of laying workers and I can only assume that the
queen was killed when she emerged from the cage.
 
I don't know whether the presence of laying workers in a colony would
automatically lead to this result (the death of an introduced queen) but
what I learned subsequently may help others in similar positions.
 
I was told that the ovarian development in workers (leading to laying
workers) is caused by a low level of pheremones given off by BROOD in the
colony.  If there is no brood, there are no pheremones, so laying workers
develop.
 
Therefore, in a queenless hive, one can reduce the likelihood of this
occuring by introducing frames of brood from another colony.  This may then
make the acceptance of a new queen more likely.  Certainly this was the
case with myself.  Following the failed introduction of the new queen, I
introduced 2 frames of brood over 2 weeks (one each week).  The laying
workers stopped laying (although there was still some sealed drone brood)
and I successfully united the colony with a 5 frame nuc by the newspaper
method.
 
It is possible that the results were coincidental and there may be other
explanations, but I can leave others with more experience to comment on
that.
 
Regards to all,
 
Bill Parker
Hobbyist Beekeeper
Buckingham, UK