[rmdial]

Hive with lots of bees, lots of drones, no queen or capped brood. Don't know if this is a laying worker hive or not. If so, is there a method used for adding a new queen to this hive that differs from the typical put in cage and wait a few days to place candy in hole?

Thanks in advance.

Soapy

 

[concrete-bees]

just pull frames -- if you see lots of eggs one cell its laying workers

if not LOOK for the queen -- she might still be in there - just not laying -

then proceed with a new queen

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

putting a frame of brood every few days has much better results even if requeening, look for multiple eggs on the sides of the cells, laying workers are shorter than queens so their little tails do not reach the bottom, eggs are very small so wear your glasses and tilt the frame until the sun reflects off the bottom of the cells

 

[blueskybeesupply]

As mentioned, the queen may be a drone layer or non-layer or look for multiple eggs in the cell from laying workers.

As mentioned, don't even consider re-queening a drone-layer hive without placing a frame of capped brood on either side of the queen cage, or better yet a push-in intro cage over the queen and capped brood--so the emerging bees are confined with the queen. The brood pheromones will help suppress ovary development in the workers and the new bees will be very accepting. I have had queens not take in some problematic hives when introduced in shipping cages, and used the push-in cage with great success on the 2nd try. You can buy one, or make it out of hardware cloth.

If it's too far gone, I would consider combining with another hive using newspaper and make a split with a good queen in a few weeks.

 

[Michael Bush]

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

If I were trying to introduce a queen to a laying worker hive, which I generally don't recommend, I'd put it in a push in cage over some emerging worker brood (which you'll need to get from another hive of course) and include a bit of honey in the area...

 

[rmdial]

The hive I am speaking about has no sealed brood when I inspect but plenty of bees and lots of drones. I have been keeping it going with honey frames but still no brood sealed or unsealed.

Will this work either way:

1. Install new queen with plenty of brood (sealed and unsealed), leave nurse bees on brood frames, add honey frames. All of this goes in bottom deep.

2. Put double screen board over that box and then place the other deeps with existing bees on top of that.

3. Wait a week and release queen in bottom box.

4. Wait another week and take out double screen board to combine hives.

There are so many bees I do not want to lose them but, more importantly, I do not want to lose the new queen either.

This hive is not in my yard but at a friends about 10 miles away.

Thanks again for the input.

Soapy

 

[Jim 134]

This may work

Requeening Frame

http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Requeening-Frame/productinfo/274/


Queen Introduction Frame Instructions

http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/downloads/beekeeping/QueenIntroFrame.pdf


BEE HAPPY Jim 134

 

[dvwilson]

Sorry about replying late -- was out of town last week. This site walked me through requeening a laying worker hive last year, and it worked perfectly. I definitely had a laying worker with domed drone brood and several queen cells. I was advised not to add a new queen, as the laying worker would likely kill the new queen; i.e., the hive thinks they have a queen already. I was advised to take the brood box about 50 feet away from its home, to remove each frame of bees and brush them all onto the ground. I placed the brushed frames into a new brood box, and when all bees had been brushed, I took the essentially empty frames in the new box back to its hive stand. Most of the bees were already there waiting for me. However, the laying worker, never having oriented, was unable to find her way back to the hive. I waited three days to confirm that no new eggs were being laid, then introduced a new (purchased) queen, and added a couple of frames of brood (also purchased because this was my first and only hive) to ensure new worker bees to take care of the new queen's brood. This seemed like a daunting task, but it actually went quite smoothly (the bees obviously didn't like it, and I would advise smoke and full protective garb). That little hive made it through the winter with feeding (syrup and dry sugar), and is now booming. I am about ready to harvest my first honey. Good luck with whatever you decide to do -- Debbie in North Carolina

 

[Dr.Wax]

What I did when I had a laying worker hive was add a frame of eggs in one week increments until they made their own queen. If I recall correctly they made one after adding the second frame.

The scent of the brood suppresses the laying workers and they won't accept a new queen until this happens. Just give it some time.