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queen and laying workers?

1029 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Michael Bush
I have had some problems with one of my hives. Hive went queenless, put in a new queen, a week later saw her, then two weeks later she was gone. Re-queened again and on inspection today spotted the queen and eggs. Some of the cells had one egg in them, some had 2. Is it possible for a hive to have both a queen and laying worker, and will this hive straighten out on its own? I know there is no guarantees with anything, just wondering about others experiences in this situation.
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is the queen a newly mated one? sometimes they take a few days to get things worked out. Also, where are the 2 eggs at..on the side or standing up on end down in the back of the cell? Worker bees are usually too short to reach the back of the cell and so there eggs are on the sides of the comb vs. a newly mated queen who might have a couple eggs per cell for a short time.
They seem to be in the bottom of the cells. It was a purchased queen, so she was mated before I got her, or was supposed to be, but I don't know if they are laying before they cage them and ship them. It's from Hawaii (kona). Will keep an eye on it and check again next week.
> Is it possible for a hive to have both a queen and laying worker, and will this hive straighten out on its own?

Every hive has laying workers. A laying worker hive has a lot more of them...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm#multiple

>Some of the cells had one egg in them, some had 2.

Unlikely for laying workers. They often have a dozen and usually have at least four or five.

http://bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm#doubleeggs
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