Laying worker question

[kmartin]

I pulled a frame of open brood, some empty comb, and a feeder into a 5 frame medium nuc. I think I have ended up with a laying worker nuc. No worries, my fault (inattention and poor eyesite), but it got me thinking.

I haven't got my mind wrapped around bee genetics yet, but does using a laying worker hive make sense to produce drones that carry the original queen, and her mated drones, genetics?

And BTW, what would you do with a nuc, assuming it is a laying worker. They've put up some honey and pollen. I was thinking I would just add them to an existing weak hive.

[Michael Bush]

If it's a nuc, I would shake the bees out in front of a STRONG hive and then put the frames on the strong hive.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm

[RayMarler]

Laying workers will lay in worker sized cells, giving small underperforming drones. If you had all drone comb in the nuc, I guess it might be possible. I've never tried it that way myself.