# Newbee with laying workers... help?



## auntievintage (Nov 27, 2012)

Installed 2 packages May 17th. Hive 1 is doing great. By June 4th, I was fairly sure that Hive #2 was queenless. She must have died shortly after release because she never laid any eggs. There were no signs of laying workers either at that time. Twice, while inspecting, I thought I saw a queen as she had a very pale, slighlty long back-half but it was definitely not the original queen that was in the cage with the package as she was rather large.
I ordered a new queen the following day.
She didn't arrive until last Friday (June 14th) and when I went to put her cage in the hive, I saw many drone cells on the little bit of comb that they have drawn. There was also sproadic larvae showing here & there. I put the queen cage in the bottom of the hive anyway (I suspect they will kill her right away?). Tonight, they will have had 4 days to release her or kill her. If I find that they have killed her, what is my next step?
Should I steal a comb of brood from the good hive? I didn't do this originally because they had only just started laying brood. They still only have a few combs of brood.
I have read about "shake-outs" but how do I go about it with a tbh? Just brush them all out in front of the other hive? Will the other hive be likely to accept them? Any advice is appreciated. I have read Michael Bush's page on laying workers but I still have so many questions.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Should I steal a comb of brood from the good hive? I didn't do this originally because they had only just started laying brood. They still only have a few combs of brood.

Go for the youngest (frames of eggs are a small investment) and swap it with a drawn comb from the other hive.

>I have read about "shake-outs" but how do I go about it with a tbh? Just brush them all out in front of the other hive? 

Yes.

>Will the other hive be likely to accept them?

Yes.


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## heaflaw (Feb 26, 2007)

3 times I have tried shakeouts. It never worked for me. Adding a frame of eggs every week has worked after the 2nd or 3rd week.


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## auntievintage (Nov 27, 2012)

Thank you for the help. Fortunately, when I checked, the marked queen was easy to spot and was accepted. I left them alone until yesterday. She is still there but the hive is not doing well. It seems like they have done nothing for the last week and a half, their population is dwindled and many of them are drones. There are some pincher bugs in there. An ant was seen running away with a larvae... is it time for me to give up on this hi e or does she need more time? The other hi e is strong. If I shook them out now, what about the new queen? Is it possible to steal bees from the strong hive? (And would I want to?)


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

> Is it possible to steal bees from the strong hive? (And would I want to?) 

Sure. If the new queen is laying, then they have all the brood they can take care of, but emerging brood doesn't require any significant work. You can leave the adhering bees if you feel confident you can make sure there isn't a queen among them...


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## auntievintage (Nov 27, 2012)

Thank you SO much! I may try that if I can find the queen in the strong hive to be sure she isn't on the comb that I move. Being new, I have had a hard time spotting her yet.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Shake off all the adhering bees and you will know the queen isn't on it...


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