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| How To Save A Laying Worker Hive |
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| When a person becomes a beekeeper, they can bet the farm that one day they will have to deal with a laying worker hive. A laying worker hive is simply a hive that has no queen, has no eggs or brood of the proper age for the nurse bees to raise a new queen, and as a result the workers have started laying unfertilized eggs.
The cause is simply that the hive lacks the pheromones that are provided by developing brood. This pheromone is key to suppressing the ovaries development in worker bees. When this pheromone is no longer present, the worker bees' ovaries will develop, and since the worker lacks the sperm needed to fertilize the egg, all the eggs she lays will be drones. Ultimately the hive will parish if the beekeeper does not intervene. |
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| One the signs of a laying worker hive is multiple eggs in each brood cell. This is not always a good good indicator of a laying worker because newly mated queens will often lay multiple eggs in each cell right after they start laying. However unlike laying workers the queen will not continue to lay multiple eggs in each cell for long. Additional clues that help us determine when there are laying workers, is the presents of eggs on the side wall of some of the deeper cells. |
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| Contrary to popular belief, workers are capable of laying eggs in the center of the brood cells by backing all the way into the cell. The difference is that workers are not capable of consistently laying eggs in the center of the cells and they will often look like the picture above with some eggs in the middle, and some off center. |
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| Another good indicator is the presents of drone brood in worker cells. This can be identified by the small bullet or raised cappings covering the brood in the smaller worker cells. However it is also possible to have the presents of a drone laying queen. This is caused by a queen who simply failed to get properly mated, or a queen that has run out of sperm. |
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There are multiple ways to deal with laying worker hives. Some method are easier and work better than others. Here are the methods that have worked for me: |
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| A. The first method is probably the most well known, and that is to take the hive approximately 100 yards away from their location and shake off all the workers onto the ground. In theory the laying workers are like laying queens and can not fly very far. In most cases they are not able to make it back to the hive. Some of the non-laying workers will return and the hive is then given a new queen. |
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I have found this method to be destructive and unreliable. While it is true that it often works, sometimes the laying workers are able to make it back to the hive, and some people have reported nearby hives going queenless after they try this method. It is possible that some of them on occasion make it back and go into the wrong hive, then kill the queen in that hive; however I have not tested this theory.
In addition to the possibly of some of the laying workers making it back to the hive, the younger nurse bees that have not yet left the hive will not be able to make it back, and the result is a weak hive that only has older foragers. In my opinion this is counter productive, and it would simply be better to replace all the bees by making a new split. |
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B. Another method is to simply combine the hive with a strong queen right hive, then later make a split from that hive. The goal here is to suppress the laying workers using the larva and queen pheromones of the queen right hive. In the mean time the combination of the two hives helps strengthen the hive that they are combined with. A split can be made just two weeks after combining.
To use this method, reduce the laying worker hive down to one deep. Remove the cover from the hive they are to be combined with, then lay a newspaper over the top bars. Make clean cuts in the paper using a razor, then place the laying worker hive on top of the newspaper. Put the cover on top of the stack and leave them alone. A week later they will be combined into one hive, the laying workers will be killed or suppressed, and the queen from the strong hive will be protected by her workers. Two weeks later take a split from the hive, making sure to get open brood in both the parent hive, and the split. Then give the queenless hive a new queen. |
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C. In my opinion the easiest method is to simply suppress the laying workers and either allow them to raise a new queen, or give them a new queen.
To use this method, simply remove a frame of open brood from a strong hive and give it to the laying worker hive. The pheromones from the open brood will suppress the laying workers. Some beekeepers have claimed that this must be done three times, however I've found that if I leave the young nurse bees attached to the frame that I give to the laying worker hive, a week later they will have queen cells. I do however continue to give them at least one more frame of open brood one week later to maintain the pheromones and suppress the laying workers while a new queen is being raised. Once queen cells are present, you can allow them to continue to raise a new queen, or you can scrape out the queen cells and give them a new queen. It may also be beneficial to give them two frames of brood with attached bees the second week, just to keep their numbers up and to make sure the new queen has plenty of nurse bees when she starts laying.
I find this method to work best. It does not put queens at risk by combining them with the laying worker hive, and the hive won't lose their young nurse bees as they would when using the shake down method. |
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| Good luck! |
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