Re: Laying workers?
First, it's "laying workers", since its rarely, if ever, just one.
Nearly all hives have laying workers. They're usually not a problem, since they only lay unfertilized eggs, which can only develop into drones (except in the very rare instance of thelytoky), and the nurse bees police the brood, removing any worker laid eggs that are deposited in worker cells. When a hive has been broodless for extended periods of time, the lack of brood pheromone is said to interfere with nurse bees ability to properly police their brood nest, and laying workers seem to take over, with their drones being raised, even in worker cells. The hive bees also seem to begin treating some laying workers almost as if they were queens.
Due to these various complicating issues, colonies that have developed uncontrolled laying workers, are difficult to straighten out.