Laying worker
Posted: Thu May 11, 2023 5:55 pm
Hey everyone,
I represent the beekeepers club at NC State, but I am originally from Guilford County and really appreciate this resource.
The beekeepers club installed two colonies in early April, and one of them is giving us problems. I was hoping someone here could give us some advice about how to move forward. Last week, we thought this colony was queenless because we found signs of a laying worker, no worker brood, and we could not find the queen. Today, we were planning to introduce a new queen, but we actually found the old queen while we were inspecting. We also found a few new queen cells. I read that trying to requeen is not usually successful in the case of a laying worker, and that the best thing to do is combine with a strong colony. However, we don't have another strong colony since our other one is also pretty new.
I'm pretty stumped about how to move forward, and I was hoping someone could give us some advice. We still have another queen if we need to requeen, and it looks like the bees are making a new one anyway, but I am worried about their numbers since I haven't seen any worker brood since we set up the colony.
Thanks a lot,
Ben Regester
I represent the beekeepers club at NC State, but I am originally from Guilford County and really appreciate this resource.
The beekeepers club installed two colonies in early April, and one of them is giving us problems. I was hoping someone here could give us some advice about how to move forward. Last week, we thought this colony was queenless because we found signs of a laying worker, no worker brood, and we could not find the queen. Today, we were planning to introduce a new queen, but we actually found the old queen while we were inspecting. We also found a few new queen cells. I read that trying to requeen is not usually successful in the case of a laying worker, and that the best thing to do is combine with a strong colony. However, we don't have another strong colony since our other one is also pretty new.
I'm pretty stumped about how to move forward, and I was hoping someone could give us some advice. We still have another queen if we need to requeen, and it looks like the bees are making a new one anyway, but I am worried about their numbers since I haven't seen any worker brood since we set up the colony.
Thanks a lot,
Ben Regester