Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Identifying a laying worker  (Read 2335 times)

Offline pdmattox

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1143
  • Gender: Male
    • October bend Rv Park
Identifying a laying worker
« on: April 25, 2007, 11:28:10 am »
From: "Malcolm Bullard" <mrflabee@cox.net>
> Date: 2007/04/24 Tue PM 07:47:30 CDT
> To: FloridaBeekeepers@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [FloridaBeekeepers] Laying Workers was Open Air Hive
>
> Richard,
>
> Upon answering old man riggs questions you can proceed by studying the
> information below and apply the most appropriate action to your
> situation.

> All methods of identifying a laying worker bee involve inspection, in
> which the beekeeper examines the brood pattern and type to identify
> if a healthy queen is present, or a potential laying worker. The
> beekeeper looks for a number of symptoms, including:
>
> Brood Pattern:
>
> Laying workers lay eggs that lack the queen's egg recognition
> pheromone, meaning that other workers may remove the eggs. This
> results in a spotty brood pattern, in which empty cells are scattered
> heavily through capped brood.
>
> Number of Eggs per Cell:
>
> The beekeeper looks at the honeycomb cells to see how many eggs are
> laid in each one. Queen bees will usually lay only a single egg to a
> cell, but laying workers will lay multiple eggs per cell. Multiple
> eggs per cell are not an absolute sign of a laying worker because
> when a newly mated queen begins laying, she may lay more than one egg
> per cell.
>
> Egg Position:
>
> Egg position in the cell is a good indicator of a laying worker. A
> Queen bee's abdomen is noticeably longer than a worker, allowing a
> queen to lay an egg at the bottom of the cell. A Queen bee will
> usually lay an egg centered in the cell. Workers cannot reach the
> bottom of normal depth cells, and will lay eggs on the sides of the
> cell or off center.
>
> Drone Brood in Worker Cells:
>
> Another good indicator is drone brood in worker sized cells. Drones
> are raised in larger cells than workers. Drone cells are
> recognizeable by their larger size, and when capped Drone cells are
> capped with blunt pointed cappings. Drones in worker cells are a sure
> sign of a failing queen or laying worker.
>
> Removing a laying worker bee:
>
> Removing a laying worker is difficult for a number of reasons. Laying
> workers may not appear different from other workers. Also, in hives
> where a laying worker develops, multiple workers will lay, meaning
> that killing a worker spotted laying will not resolve the problem.
> Introducing a new queen bee to a hive with a laying worker is
> difficult, as the colony considers itself queenright, and will not
> accept the new queen. Beekeepers have developed a number of methods
> for requeening laying worker hives, including:
>
> Shake outs:
>
> In a shake out, the bees are carried far from their hive, and then
> shaken from the frames. The field bees return to the hive, which may
> already have a queen in a queen cage waiting. The theory behind the
> shakeout is that the laying workers are nurse bees who have not
> oriented to the hive, and will not find their way back.
>
> Requeen via Push in Cage:
>
> A push in cage is a plastic cage that can be pushed into the wax
> comb. It prevents bees outside the cage from reaching the queen. The
> new queen can lay in the enclosed cells that should include emerging
> brood. The bees that emerge in the push in cage will accept the queen
> and care for her. When the queen is finally released from the push in
> cage she is more easily accepted.
>
> Combine with a queenright hive:
>
> By combining a laying worker colony with a queenright hive, the
> workers from the laying worker hive can be used to build up another
> colony. The bees from the queenright hive have already accepted their
> queen, and the brood pheromone plus the queen pheromone will aid in
> suppressing the urge to lay.
>
> Bee friendly,
>
> Doc
> Pensacola, Fl

Offline Sean Kelly

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 913
  • Gender: Male
  • I Pick; Therefore I Grin
    • Sean's Facebook Page
Re: Identifying a laying worker
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2007, 12:30:26 am »
WOW!  Must have been reading my mind!  I was just looking on here to see if anyone had tips to identify if I had a laying worker!  lol.  Awesome big help man, thanks for this post!!!

Sean Kelly
"My son,  eat  thou honey,  because it is good;  and the honeycomb,  which is sweet  to thy taste"          - Proverbs 24:13