[timedlem]

This hive is in its second year and I suspect it may have a laying worker however I don't see the hive stores suffering from this. I had harvested around 30 lbs of honey from this hive and have consistently seen a large amount of drones. I am just wondering how much I should worry about a possible laying workers if I have good stores in the hive. Thanks TE

 

[AR1]

The hive will die in a few months if it is laying worker. No new worker bees. That's the big problem.
I used a laying worker hive this year to clean moldy frames and make honey and pollen stores I used to build up other hives. So they are useful.
I played around all summer trying to get that hive on track with a queen. It finally got a queen. Pretty much wasted resources I think. I think in the future I'll let them work til they die.

 

[Akademee]

Without a queen, the hive is doomed. you can try to reintroduce a queen, but in my experience it is usually a waste and they can kill your new queen. Once you have laying workers, all you can really do is shake out the bees and take apart the hive. The bees will move into adjacent hives and the laying workers will be killed shortly after entry in queenright hives.

 

[Gray Goose]

are you sure it is laying worker?
what do the frames look like?
Could be a drone laying queen, could it not?

GG

 

[Steve in PA]

Laying workers are terminal to a hive. Screen combine is the best way I have found to fix the problem but you gotta catch it early otherwise all you are saving is a bunch of drones.

You do see mostly drones in the hive, right?

 

[elmer_fud]

Could be a drone laying queen, could it not?

What signs of laying worker are you seeing? I have had a few done only laying queens.

Have you done anything to try and correct the laying workers or drone only laying queen?

 

[timedlem]

Well the only sign is a large drone population that has persisted for about 2 and a half months. I have observed a consistent amount of workers throughout the time of the hive and on a recent inspection I still found cells with single eggs in the bottoms. So I guess the only reason I thought it was laying workers was the higher drone population and as this is my first hive I don't know what a normal amount of drones is. I would say that at any given time I see about 250-600 drones in the hive and I just thought there was a lot of them.

 

[bushpilot]

It sounds like a healthy hive to me.

 

[timedlem]

Ok, good to know that it is normal.