[Cloverdale]

When transferring a 4 frame NUC into a deep, can I use a double screen and then put a laying worker hive over it to allow the brood pheromone to stop the laying workers? Then combine them? How much time should be given before the combination? I have already tried the disastrous shake-out, and do not have enough brood framed to share with them. I don't want to lose any hives.....
Any thoughts?

 

[Michael Bush]

I've done that. But it takes three weeks of brood pheromone to reset the laying workers...

 

[Cloverdale]

I've done that. But it takes three weeks of brood pheromone to reset the laying workers...

Thank you Michael for responding...so the above method can work still waiting 3 weeks or so for the brood pheromone to work on them....an interesting situation happened with this hive; when I did the shakeout and finally figured why they weren't coming back w/o laying workers I did stamp on the "mini" piles of bees
(I was told that the bees would cover the laying workers thinking them queens) I did this a few times before remorse took over and I stopped. I had covered them with a box because it was drizzling and they all moved up into it...I ended up shaking the box back into the hive; I had one frame of brood that I put in there. Looking into the hive yesterday there was no eggs or larva and maybe a few capped drone brood. This tells me that maybe I did kill the laying workers? and to get them a queen ASAP ? Or do the above method? Or at this time can I shake them in front of the other two queenright hives and have them climb up a stick to get in?