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Author Topic: Maybe an answer to drone laying queen or laying worker? Does this sound right?  (Read 805 times)

Offline Aroc

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A bit involved but I will try to make it short.

Last year one of our splits didn?t go as planned.  They weren?t able to raise their own queen so we tried to put a queen cell in.  That didn?t work so well as the queen emerged as we were putting it in the hive.  Things got a bit screwed up and either she never mated and became a drone layer or the hive developed a laying worker.

This went on for a few weeks as we were trying to decide what we were looking at.  Well my wife decided to try something.  She placed a full frame of bees....nurse bees and foragers directly into the split.  We moved it to another location. What we think happened was the foragers killed the drone layer or the laying worker and attempted to rob their own hive not realizing they had moved.

A few days later it accepted a purchased queen.

Not sure really what happened.  The queen did well laying eggs.  Not sure if it made the winter though.

My wife has a little different way of approaching beekeeping.  She couldn?t see shaking them out and abandoning a hive.  Wanted to try some unconventional methods.

Did this work or did something else happen we missed.
You are what you think.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Aroc,
If the bees are still alive, then it worked. The frame of open brood helped put the bees back on track for accepting a new queen.
The bees would not rob their own hive because you moved it. If it was more than a couple of miles they would not go back to the old location. If it was less than 2 miles the field bees might if they flew over familiar territory. Field bees smell their own hive to verify it is is the correct hive. To verify this, watch what the returning bees do when you smoke a hive.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

 

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