Killers all a bunch of killers

[ajm]

  I installed a package in the first of May.  Some eggs were laid and during multiple hive inspections no queen is to be found.  Very through searches!  I requeened and upon releasing the queen they killed it.  I was removing the queen cage to find them trying to carry her off.  I am concerned about loosing the hive.  What should I do?  There is some eggs and some larva.  They have stored some honey and pollen.

Need help!

ajm

[Robo]

If there are egg & larvae, either there is a queen, or a laying worker.  If there are multiple eggs per cell and they are stuck to the sides and all over the cells (basically a mess compared to a normal queen that lays the egg standing up on the center of the bottom of the cell) you most likely have a laying worker.    Either case, you need to get rid of whoever is laying before you can try to introduce a new queen.

If it is a laying worker, you can combine then via the newspaper method with another queen-right hive,  or you can take the hive 20ft or more away and shake all the bees out and return the hive to it's normal place.

[ajm]

  It does not seem to be disorganized in laying.  If there is a queen I cannot find her.  If so though then the hive continues.  But what if it is a laying worker?  Will they develope queen cells and requeen themsleves?  I don't mind a slow growth but don't want to loose the hive. 

ajm

[buzzbee]

If it is a laying worker,it will only raise drones as the eggs are unfertilized.If their is only one egg to a cell and it is on the bottom,you have a queen,and therefore they will kill any you try to introduce.

[Robo]

Another point I should have mentioned, if it is a laying worker, all the capped brood would be drone brood.   So if you have any capped worker brood, it would be another indication that you have a queen.    Sometimes emergency raised queens have very short abdomens can be quite difficult to spot.    If you have a queen excluder, you can remove all the frames and put the queen excluder on top of the hive body and put another empty hive body on top of the queen excluder.  Shake all the bee off the frames and on top of the excluder and smoke them thru.  The queen should be left on top of the excluder.

For some reason, bees are usually content with a laying worker and will not try to replace her.

[ajm]

  The larva that is in there is various sizes from the size of a comma (small) to a larva that is filling up the cell.  There is only one larva per cell.  Also I have capped brood.  What's going on.

ajm

[Robo]

If there is capped brood, then you have a queen.  Keep looking for her or try the excluder method.