# How to handle a laying worker



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

It is easy to figure out when you have a laying worker. You will see multiple eggs in the cells and the eggs will not be in the bottom of the cell. Like this.



A laying worker occurs when a queen is not in residence for a while. All workers are females with undeveloped ovaries. The queens pheromones prevent any of the workers ovaries from developing and having the ability to lay. When there is no queen, 1 or more of the workers may develop the ability to lay eggs. The worker has not mated(nor can she) and therefore can only lay unfertilized eggs that will turn into drones.

When the laying worker begins to lay she gives off pheromones. The bees in the colony accept her as their queen. This is one of the reasons that dealing with laying workers is so difficult. You would think that you would simply introduce a queen to solve the problem, but the workers of the colony believe they are queen-right and will kill the new queen even though she would be the salvation of the hive. With the laying worker only producing drones the hive is essentially dying in slow motion. Another problem with a laying worker is that you cannot tell which one she is. So there is no way to kill her and then introduce a queen a couple of days later. 

So you have a couple of choices. The safest course of action is to kill the hive. This can be done by shaking bees into soapy water and then freezing the frames or by freezing the bees and the brood if you have a big enough freezer. 

The next option is to shake out the hive. This is almost always what is done. It is probably better to do this after most of the workers are out in the field, but when it is still fairly early in the day. The reason for this is that a hive will almost always accept a bee that comes into the hive full of nectar even if it smells different. 

Take the frames and shake the bees off of them away from any hives(I am assuming that you have at least 2 hives). You are making the bees homeless. Take all the comb and freeze it to kill the drone larvae(and any wax moth or shb larvae). The homeless bees will find homes in the other hives. The good strong pheromones that are inside of a queen-right colony either suppresses the laying workers ability to lay or the workers in that hive kill the laying worker. Either way the problem is solved. 

Do not transfer comb from the laying worker hive into a queen-right hive. The bees that are shook out of the laying worker hive must go into other hives with their hats in their hands so to speak.

One of the problems with shaking out a hive is that not all of the bees find new homes. A homeless bee is a cranky bee. They tend to buzz people and might sting. After a few days they either get accepted into a hive or die.


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## cfuhrer (Jun 11, 2013)

That is kind of sad.

As someone who has no bees in their immediate future, my take-away from this is never let a hive go queen-less.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

It just happens some times the colony will go queen less. Many times it is due to the bee keeper not being careful when replacing frames after and during an inspection.

I deal with the laying workers similar. I remove the hive at least 50 feet away from the stand. Slide a good strong colony in its place, remove 5 frames of brood from a 10 frame deep or 10 frames from a pair of 10 frame deeps. Put those frames in a new set up so the returning foragers still have a place to go. Go back to the queen less hive and shake all the bees off each and every frame sweep them out of the deeps. As I remove the bees from the frames I return them to empty spots in the other two set ups. Any capped drone cells I open up with a capping scratcher. I will do that for 3 times in 20 some days to rid my self of drones.
In stall a new queen where the second colony has sat. Has always worked for me.

Nice pictures of the eggs in the cells by the way.

 Al


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

I was taught another method, that operates on the theory that the layer worker is (most probably) a young bee that hatched after the loss of the queen, and never took to foraging. 

Early in the working day, close up the hive entrance, strap it together and drive it a half mile or so away. Disassemble the hive and shake out and brush off EVERY bee. Take the hive back to its original spot and reassemble it - worker-laid cell frames and all - and put in a new queen, in cage with attendants. 

By nightfall, all the flyers will make it back and be safe in the hive. You lose the young workers who haven't graduated to foragers yet - including that one you're trying to get rid of- since she doesn't know where the hive is. 

When you go back in to remove the queen cage, and during inspections over the next couple weeks, uncap any drone cells (or leave them be, if you don't care). The workers can then dispose of the damaged larva, clean the cells, and make room for the new queen to start laying fertilized eggs. 

Granted, I've only done this once, and it was on one of my mentor's hives, under his direction, but it worked. Within three weeks, we took a hive with a laying worker, to one that was queen-right and building itself back up, not overly burdened with drones, with no loss of comb or stores. 

Obviously, if your worker-layer was once a forager, this won't work, but he is convinced that that (almost, at least) never happens.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

On re-reading Alleyooper's post, I see those two strategies are only slightly different.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Yes, Alleyoopers and mine are similar. I'm sure that his will work. The only objection I have is the need to go back in several times to complete the operation. I have students that aren't terribly good about doing things on a schedule with their hives. Also, this spring it has rained so much that there have been weeks at a time when it was literally impossible to get into beehives. 

Another reason that I freeze all the comb is because of wax moth and small hive beetles. Here in the south these will take over any frame with honey or pollen that isn't well guarded by a vigorous colony. So I am killing 2 birds with one stone. It kills the inferior drone larvae and kills the larvae of anything else.

I'm not sure about re-assembling the colony in it's original location. Also, you lose all the nurse bees that way. With my method most of the nurse bees find homes in other hives.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

You could also just let the drones develop hatch. they won't mate any queens since they are so small. I just like to open them up to get rid of any mites too.

 Al


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

The company that sold us our packages is sending a new queen. Their recommendation was similar to txmex and alleyoopers.

My husband has the details. I'm not sure how this will play out, but doing nothing was a frustrating option and thanks to txmex we figured out it was a laying worker problem.

At least we are learning something and have a shot at not losing the whole hive. That's encouraging, although only time will tell if we end up with two surviving hives or not.

Also, for new people like us. You should know that queens are marked with certain colors depending on what year the queen was born. We did not. Apparently, this year is a blue year. I asked the bee company why we got green and white and why the new queen would be white.

They kind of just brushed me off and said that's not how their keepers do it, they just use what they have on hand.

I don't know enough yet to talk shop well about bees, but I thought that would be useful to point out to new people.

Thanks everyone for being here to help.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

gibbsgirl said:


> They kind of just brushed me off and said that's not how their keepers do it, they just use what they have on hand.


:hammer: Well at least they didn't lie. They did use what they had on hand....last years queen.

Glad they are sending you a new queen and that things are getting straightened out.


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