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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Dave Green <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 19 Apr 2002 10:18:33 -0400
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From: "Susan Adams" <[log in to unmask]>

> I have a colony of laying workers...getting a new queen next
> week...any suggestions on how I should handle this

   Don't waste your queen on a futile effort to requeen the laying worker
hive. Instead use your new queen to make a nuc from a good colony, with
normal brood. After she is established, put the nuc in the place where the
laying worker hive was (make sure they have room enough for the bees they
will gain). Give them some syrup so they'll all be happy when the bees mix.

   Take the laying worker hive away, maybe a hundred feet. You can leave it
for a couple hours of flight to let the older bees go back to the home site
and join the nuc. This will make the next job easier, because only gentle
young bees will be left, if there are any young bees. (Laying worker hives
that have been that way for a long time will only have old bees.)

Then shake out the bees that are left. The young bees will find and rejoin a
hive; the laying worker(s) will probably not, or they will be thought to be
queens and killed at the entrance of any hive they try to enter. When most
of the bees have been shaken out, you can use the box as a super on another
hive.

   You see, laying workers are recognized by the bees as their queen; though
it is a false idea, it is firmly held by the bees. A laying worker hive gets
full of old bees and often they can be really mean. They will usually kill
an introduced queen.


Dave Green   SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page (Now searchable): http://pollinator.com

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