Time to Requeen?

[tycrnp]

I've had a swarm in my hive since 5/16.  I'm not very good at finding the queen so I look for brood or larvae.  There has been none.  The bees have been very busy building comb and storing pollen/honey.  I purchased a queen today and when I went to put her in the hive there were ~ 6 - 8 larvae. Is there any way to tell if these are from a queen or a laying worker? (I tried to upload a pic, but it is the wrong format, too big...)

[little john]

From your story and the number of larvae seen, my money would be on Laying Workers.  This will be confirmed (or not) in the next few days, just as soon as those cells are capped.  If they are capped with domed (bullet-shaped) heads - then you have a Laying Worker colony.  If flat(-ish) - then all is well.

In the meanwhile, if you can get hold of a magnifying glass, take a look in the cells around those larvae - if you can see eggs in them, then they could be used to speed-up diagnosis.
LJ

[BeeMaster2]

What LJ said. What you are looking for when looking at the eggs is the location. A queen will lay the eggs at the center bottom of the cell. Laying workers lay on the sides of the cell and usually there a bunch of them. New queens will sometimes lay 2 or 3 in a cell but again at the bottom. They usually learn not to do this.
Jim

[tycrnp]

Thanks for the info/help.