# laying worker?/drone laying queen?



## Davebcrzy (Mar 12, 2011)

I thought I had a queen that was just late in laying. Unfortunately, the eggs and and larvae I was so proud to see has turned into a disappointment, a laying worker!!!! I have researched this problem and will follow Micheal Bush's advice.

Dave


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Once a queen is a drone layer it will stay that way. She may be laying some worker eggs though they usually go through a time of laying a bit of both, before laying drone only. Can you check? If so the bees will normally but not always supersede her. If they don't supersede her but there are some worker eggs, you could hasten the process by removing her to a small nuc.

First though DO make sure it is the same queen, ie check they have not already superseded and you now have a good one just starting to lay.


----------



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Yea, I was just gonna say, maybe the queen you see now is a new queen from the old one being superceded. There may have been two queens in there when you put in the apistan.


----------



## canoemaker (Feb 19, 2011)

Oldtimer said:


> She may be laying some worker eggs though they usually go through a time of laying a bit of both, before laying drone only. Can you check?


In a few days I can check for sealed brood to see if it is worker or drone in worker cells.
[/QUOTE]First though DO make sure it is the same queen, ie check they have not already superseded and you now have a good one just starting to lay.[/QUOTE]
I'm assuming if I am getting all (or mostly) worker brood, then it is a new queen. The old one was not marked.
This still leaves my question/concern about the apistan strips causing the possible demise of the old queen, and what caused the drone eggs in worker cells. In the interim between queens will workers lay? If so, do they stop when a new queen comes along? I'm still puzzled?


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Well Apistan is used on thousands of hives safely. But who really knows if it could tip the scales in some cases. But I doubt it. Queens will sometimes turn dronelayer Apistan or not.

Just as an aside though Apistan can have an effect on drone fertility and thereby possibly lead to drone laying queens some time down the track. But that's not quite the situation you are asking about.

If you have a new queen there would not be time between the 2 queens for laying workers to develop. All you can do is as you say, check the brood after it's capped & that will tell you if the queen's any good.

Let's know how it goes.


----------



## Davebcrzy (Mar 12, 2011)

I was checking this hive out yesterday. I have not yet found a queen in this hive. However, I did notice that there seemed to be some capped worker brood though it was very spotty. All the other is hatching drones. However, before I go to the extreme of dumping all the bees out on the ground, I will check and double check just to make sure.

Thanks
Dave


----------



## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

I just went through something very similar. I found the queen in a small nuc. But, I also found lost of drone brood and many cells had 4 or 5 eggs in each cell. I did another inspection two weeks later and this time the queen was gone. I did as Mr. Bush advises and added one frame of eggs a week apart I did this for three weeks. The last two frames had a queen cell on them just because I had some extras from hives trying to swarm. The hive now is doing great with a nice fat laying queen. Good luck with your hive. Like Mr. Bush says one frame of eggs a week apart will normally take care of any queen problems as long as you have some drones avaialble ofcorse.


----------



## canoemaker (Feb 19, 2011)

johng said:


> I did as Mr. Bush advises and added one frame of eggs a week apart I did this for three weeks.... The hive now is doing great with a nice fat laying queen.


johng, I'm glad you got a good queen back in your nuc. I would love to be able to add frames of brood with eggs, but right now this is my only hive. We are having cooler than normal weather which will last for several more days. I'm impatiently waiting for the weather to moderate so I can look to see if I have worker brood or all drone. If its worker, I can relax. If its drone, I'll just have to wait until my 3lb packages arrive and start from scratch. Bee hives are like boxes of chocolates--when you open the hive, you never know what you are going to find.
Tim


----------



## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

Wrong! We always know what we'll find when we open them here in FL. SHB and varroa! Bees, maybe!


----------



## canoemaker (Feb 19, 2011)

fish_stix said:


> Wrong! We always know what we'll find when we open them here in FL. SHB and varroa! Bees, maybe!


Some things in life we can count on. What the bees are doing inside the hive is not one of them!


----------

