dumped hive of laying workers...

A hive of laying workers with no brood is called "hopelessly queenless." Because the workers are not mated (and can't mate), they can lay and raise only unfertilized drone (male) eggs/larvae. Because they cannot lay fertilized (female) eggs, they can't raise new workers nor a new queen.

Eventually all the female bees will age and die, followed shortly thereafter by the younger drones until - dead-out.

I check my hive that I am worried about next Friday. I hope it is not a laying worker. I think it might just be a young queen. We will see.

Someday I will have to deal with a laying worker!

I've dealt with a couple or three. It's a good reason to keep some nucs around. Look for the domed caps on worker brood and no normal worker brood. Not all hives that go queenless turn into laying workers, at least not right away. A hive without brood needs a frame of eggs to make a queen. It they don't start some queen cells, you either have a virgin or a defective queen. Wait a week and try again. If it's a virgin, you'll begin to see eggs and larva. If you do find domed worker cells, shake them out and set a queen right hive in it's place.

[ May 14, 2006, 06:58 PM: Message edited by: Ross ]

The workers came from when there WAS a queen. They die off until the hive is no more or is taken over by drones who eat all the food until the remaining bees starve.