# Weak, queenless hive. Can I save them?



## bchboy147 (Mar 21, 2013)

I installed a package and queen into a TBH this season for my first hive. She was alive and laying for a week or so before she went missing. After I noticed she was gone, I began to see queen cells being built, and there was an explosion of drone brood which I took as a sign that I had a laying worker. 
Before any of the queen cells hatched out, I emptied my hive in an attempt to rid it of the laying worker. I also destroyed about 75% of the drone brood by scraping the cap off of their cells. That was about 2 weeks ago.
Today I inspected the hive, and saw that there were no new eggs being laid, and that the queen cells had hatched out. There are a large number of dead drones that were dumped by the entrance. 
It looks as though I've gotten rid of the laying worker.
Im not sure, but I may have spotted a virgin queen, just really hard to tell though. It
So at this point should I wait to see if the virgin queen will go to mate?
Should I order a new queen?
I might bee able to acquire a swarm, would I be able to combine it into my top bar?
Any and all input is appreciated.

Riley


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

You did not say if the drone brood you emptied was in worker sized cells or in regular drone cells. A new queen that has just started laying in her colony will lay as many drones as she has cells to lay in. If you saw viable queen cells I doubt that you had laying workers. Laying workers usually don't start to lay until abut 3 weeks after all brood is gone. A queen cell would have time to mature and the virgin emerge before the worker brood all emerged.

Give a virgin 3 weeks from the time she emerged to mate and lay, usually it is less. It is very hard to save a colony if laying workers have developed unless you have other colonies available for support brood.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Every spring there is an "explosion of drone brood". If that "explosion" is 100% drone brood you have a serious problem. If it's 25% drone brood, it is normal.

It sounds like they swarmed and raised a new queen and she wasn't laying yet. If you had laying workers, then they would not have succeeded in raising a queen nor would shaking them out help.

http://bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm


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