So I have had a lw hive that I tried to turn around with some unconventional methods. Nothing seemed to work, so I decided to give up on it. On Saturday, I was going to literally turn the hive around as suggested by jwcarlson, so the remaining workers would beg themselves into other hives.
Just as I was going to go out, one of my other hives started swarming. Turns out it was a practice swarm and I removed several frames containing QC from the swarmy hive. Having nowhere else to put them, I decided to put them in the lw hive. I have done this before and they have torn down the cells, so don't have much hope.
However, what surprised me is that when I opened the lw hive, there were only a few drones milling about. There were no more capped drone cells, and no more drone eggs. If the original qc I added " took", I would have capped worker brood by now.
So my question is what happened to the laying workers? Is it possible there were only a few and they died off? If so, why haven't others turned lw? J
Just as I was going to go out, one of my other hives started swarming. Turns out it was a practice swarm and I removed several frames containing QC from the swarmy hive. Having nowhere else to put them, I decided to put them in the lw hive. I have done this before and they have torn down the cells, so don't have much hope.
However, what surprised me is that when I opened the lw hive, there were only a few drones milling about. There were no more capped drone cells, and no more drone eggs. If the original qc I added " took", I would have capped worker brood by now.
So my question is what happened to the laying workers? Is it possible there were only a few and they died off? If so, why haven't others turned lw? J