How old is too old ?

[Amy3745]

I have a hive with a laying worker, all cells full of drone brood. I took a couple frames of open brood, and added to the troubled hive. I replaced the drone brood frames with the frames from other hive. The only stage of brood I could find that day were small c-shape. Are these too old for them to raise a good queen out of?

Amy

[Michael Bush]

If you had some small larvae, it's likely there is also some eggs and smaller larvae. The size that's perfect for rasing a queen is actually almost invisible.

Check back in three days and see if they have a queen cell started.

[Rob Mountain]

I would just be very weary of the laying workers still taking control of the hive. One thing that we used to do in CA was to shake all the bees out of the hive 10 – 15 meters away, and let them fly back. Somehow when the bees returned they did not seem recognize the laying workers.

Replacing the laying worker brood was a good thing.

[topbarguy]

Hi Amy,

I've tried lots of methods to salvage a hive that has accepted a few laying workers. It's really a waste of time. Introducing a queen will seldom work. Rarely will introducing a queen cell work. Trying to salvage the hive will often take more than one attempt/brood cycle. By that time, even the strongest hive will be in trouble.

The best advice, even with a large hive, is to shake the hive out about 50 feet or more away from the beeyard. The bees will drift into other hives and reinforce them.

Regards
Dennis