[quote author=FRAMEshift link=topic=33355.msg274671#msg274671
I guess the real question is, why did a queen cell work for you? What were the circumstances when you did it? Did you put the queen cell at some distance from the brood nest?
[/quote]
No idea. First hive, second year. Fairly early spring. I only knew about the laying worker because all of the drones. They kept trying to raise a drag queen. They had a laying worker for at least 3 weeks (queenless for 4+?)
I begged a split from my mentor, and he also found some queen cells in that hive. I was planning on getting the split going, then shaking all the bees through a queen excluder to get rid of the drones, there were that many. I stuck 2 queen cells between frames at the top of the 2 box hive, after a generous spray on the cells and in the hive with HoneyBHealthy syrup for smell.
I later, couldn't tell if the queen cells were successful, they were open. I assumed failure (since, after all, I read that it was almost impossible to fix a laying worker hive!!) and was halfway through shaking them out when suddenly I saw a queen walking around! I double checked the frames, and there were good eggs. AAUGGHH!
I put everything back together and put the queen back, but by that time they decided it was all her fault, killed her, and successfully raised another queen from her eggs. (and set them back another 4 weeks!)
So when people tell me that there isn't a good way to fix things, I say why not try, and don't assume failure.