On Mon, 28 Apr 1997 06:56:29 -0500 "Excerpts from BEE-L"
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Reply-to:      [log in to unmask]
>From:          Michael Reddell <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Laying workers are not any fun but there is a way to save the colony.
>What you have to realize is that you are saving an aging work force
>rather than a full functioning colony.  If you do nothing they will
>make
>honey for a week or two and then die off.
>
>This could be a laying worker problem if the drone brood is not all
>capped.  If the colony is hopelessly queenless for a period of time,
>some
>workers can develop ovaries and start to lay. The symptoms are 1) no
>queen  2) no brood except scattered drone brood in all stages of
>development  3) LOTS of honey in the brood chamber and elsewhere  4)
>possibly some poorly formed queen cells (with drone larvae in them!!)
>5)
>eggs layed at odd angles or two in a cell. There can be a substantial
>amount of drone brood, but it's undersized, and peppered across the
>frames
>in a pathetic pattern. Not a pretty picture at all!!
>
>If this turns out to be a laying worker situation, DO NOT try to
>introduce a queen. It never seems to work, no matter how careful you
>are.
>Apparently the colony thinks the laying workers are queens and  will
>not
>accept your new queen. The only method I know of that works most of
>the
>time is this:
>
>Set the hive off to the side of its usual location and put another
>hive
>with at least 5 frames of brood in all stages and with a strong laying
>queen in its place.
>
>Then shake and brush ALL the bees from the laying worker hive off the
>frames onto the ground directly in front of the queenright hive.  I
>usually spray them lightly with a thin sugar syrup also.  This
>thoroughly disorients the laying workers and when they enter the
>queenright hive they apparently forget their bad habits.
>
 
>
>Michael Reddell
>[log in to unmask]
>http://www.hotcity.com/~mwr
>
        This works for me _ _ _ _ _ _
 
        Crowd all brood frames to one side of the super. Remove 2 most
empty frames and make empty space on opposite wall of super frommost
bees. Take a double sheet of newspaper, open, and fold it leingthwise so
it's width fits snug leingthwise in the two frame cavity. Center it on
the cavity and loop it down in cavity with hive tool taking precautions
not to tare. From a queen right colony remove two frames of brood with
queen and adhering workers and insert in newspaper envelope. Fold both
ends out so they hang out over the side of the super. These flaps can be
sliced off with hive tool after reassembling or left for easy marker to
inspect next visit to bee yard. The queenless colony gets the two
leftover frames and a new queen, queen cell or left to replace one on
there own. Practice all standard introduction measures here.
 
                        Regards
Alden Marshall
B-Line Apiaries
Hudson, NH 03051
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tel. 603-883-6764