I have read in a lot of literature that if you have a LW hive, one course of action is to take the hive a long distance away, shake/blow it out and the laying workers cannot/will not fly back to the original hive. In my case, I don't think my bees have been reading the same literature I've been reading.
Background
5/27. Found laying worker cells in honey supers as well as main hive boxes. (Photo laywork1.). Loaded entire hive on to my UTV. Took a very strong 2 box 5 frame NUC and put in 10 frame box. Saw queen as making the transfer and NUC had several frames of capped brood as well as two frames of eggs and emerging brood. Took former 2 box, 5 frame but now 10 frame one box NUC and moved into location of LW hive. Drove several hundred yards away and blew/brushed/shook out 1 super and 3 hive boxes of LW hive. Took 10 frames with most drone brood, double eggs etc and put in separate hive box (Put in my freezer later). Reinspected remaining LW frames and frames in honey super to insure no bees present and drove back to apiary. Put two remaining hive bodies on top of newly formed 10 frame hive box from 2/5 NUC, put queen excluder on top of third box and put original honey super back on.
6/2. Open up hive and found throughout the hive what is in laywork2 photo. Additionally, the population of the hive was diminished somewhat since 5/27. I am guessing because all the house bees weren't oriented and therefore couldn't make it back to the hive. Worse yet, although I searched through each frame twice, I did not see the queen from the original NUC. However, the frames that had eggs and emerging brood on them on 5/27 from the NUC hive are now mostly capped and I did not see any queen cells of any kind.
At least from my experiences, shaking/blowing out a LW hive with the expectation that laying workers can't/won't fly back to the original hive is not an absolute. Now, if I could just get them to read my bee library.....
Background
5/27. Found laying worker cells in honey supers as well as main hive boxes. (Photo laywork1.). Loaded entire hive on to my UTV. Took a very strong 2 box 5 frame NUC and put in 10 frame box. Saw queen as making the transfer and NUC had several frames of capped brood as well as two frames of eggs and emerging brood. Took former 2 box, 5 frame but now 10 frame one box NUC and moved into location of LW hive. Drove several hundred yards away and blew/brushed/shook out 1 super and 3 hive boxes of LW hive. Took 10 frames with most drone brood, double eggs etc and put in separate hive box (Put in my freezer later). Reinspected remaining LW frames and frames in honey super to insure no bees present and drove back to apiary. Put two remaining hive bodies on top of newly formed 10 frame hive box from 2/5 NUC, put queen excluder on top of third box and put original honey super back on.
6/2. Open up hive and found throughout the hive what is in laywork2 photo. Additionally, the population of the hive was diminished somewhat since 5/27. I am guessing because all the house bees weren't oriented and therefore couldn't make it back to the hive. Worse yet, although I searched through each frame twice, I did not see the queen from the original NUC. However, the frames that had eggs and emerging brood on them on 5/27 from the NUC hive are now mostly capped and I did not see any queen cells of any kind.
At least from my experiences, shaking/blowing out a LW hive with the expectation that laying workers can't/won't fly back to the original hive is not an absolute. Now, if I could just get them to read my bee library.....