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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Tim Vaughan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 11 Apr 2003 08:51:08 -0400
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"I have a drone layer. Probably because of mites."

I doubt it has anything to do with mites. You probably don't even have a
queen. Sometimes old queens become drone layers, but typically what
happens is that the queen dies do to any of several reasons from Foul
Brood to accidental squishing, and if the hive is unsuccessful in rearing
a replacement, one or more of the workers will start laying drones.

By the time you discover your hive is a drone layer, it's not easy to
correct it. You can combine the workforce with another hive, but if you
really want to save it, my best results are just to add a young queen with
two frames of capped and uncapped brood with young bees using lots of
smoke and scratching a couple frames of honey with my hive tool. Whenever
I've done this, I have saved the hive.

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