Subject: drone laying worker

From: Dan Buchsbaum <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 1995 19:19:06 -600 (CST)

Hi people!
My 2 hives were already overflowing with brood and bees in early 
February, so I stuck 3 frames of brood of varying stages in a nuc with 2 
frames packed with honey and pollen.  I saw a small queen cell being 
built and left it hoping they would make their own queen.  The small size 
should have warned me...I now have a worker or sterile layer.  Can't 
locate anything resembling a queen, so I assume there is a worker doing 
this.  I stuck them all in a 2 super hive with a bunch of new brood, more 
bees, and more honey and pollen a couple weeks ago.  Today I had a look 
and there is a BIG queen cell capped and hanging from a bottom frame.  
When she emerges, will the worker stop laying?  Or will the worker kill 
the queen?  Or will the two co-exist?  
My wait and see policy dosen't seem to be working, so I thought I'd make 
a preemptive strike...
-Cynthia in Houston

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From: [email-masked] (Adam Finkelstein)
Date: 24 Mar 1995 13:06:38 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Dan Buchsbaum  <[email-masked]> Cynthia wrote:
>Today I had a look 

 You ask a good question. Sometimes a well developed virgin will mate and
survive to become a laying queen in a laying worker colony, other times she
will be killed by the workers in the laying worker colony (you
might have more than one laying worker "queen") 
The best remedy for this is to add frames of hatching brood to the colony
ensuring young bees are there to accept the newly mated queen. 
 In queen mating,  the condition you describe happens occasionally: I
usually shake all the bees out of a laying worker colony and make up a
new colony with frames of new emerging brood, adhering bees and some
stores. The result of the shaking/disorganization, coupled with the
addition of emerging young bees helps to settle the laying worker colony
and allow the virgin to mate.
Adam
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______________________________________
Adam Finkelstein 
[email-masked]