AL wrote:
>
> Susan Adams wrote:
>
> >      Also I have a colony of laying workers...getting a new queen next
> > week...any suggestions on how I should handle this
>
> Take the entire hive a distance of a couple hundred yards from its
> original location. Dump *every* bee out on the ground - do not miss a
> single bee, it could be the laying worker. Set the hive back in its
> original location for the returning bees. The laying worker(s) will not
> return to the hive. Then you can re-qeen.

I believe recent research shows that this approach does not work and the
laying worker is as likely to return as all the others.

I have tried many different approaches and and finally concluded it is
not worth trying to requeen a colony that had a laying wrker. Also,
there is not necessarily only one worker that is laying. Unless handling
killed the queen, then there is something else going on that I see no
need to propagate.

I would use the new queen with a split of a good colony rather than try
and save one which may have other problems.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine