laying workers

[Geo224]

Hello can anyone help?

I've seen laying workers laying multiple eggs in cells but can they lay a single egg in cells? I have 2 hives that after having A/S them turned into drone laying colonies. I don't normally have problems finding Q's but I cant find them in these 2 which makes me think laying workers. Also one hive has eggs in supers as well as B/B with the Q excluder in place between boxes. Could be small Q maybe but bit of a mystery.

Any ideas?

[Jon]

Souds like laying workers if you have eggs above and below the excluder. How long is it from you did the artificial swarm?

[Geo224]

I performed the A/S, checked for Q cell emergence then left for a couple of weeks before checking for a laying Q. Found eggs and larva when checked which I thought was a newly mated Q. On the next weekly inspection found sealed drone larva.

I suppose the only remedy is to shake them out?

[Jon]

Shaking out is an old myth which does not sort out the situation unless you mean shaking out as in dumping them!
A drone laying queen will fly back to the hive and laying workers can also fly in spite of what you read in a lot of books.
if you have a drone laying queen, you need to find her, remove her then requeen.
That's the best case scenario.
If you have laying workers you can faff around and try and rescue the colony but it is basically a write off and you would be best advised to forget about it and start again with a few frames of fresh bees in order to make up a nuc.
laying worker colonies tend to kill introduced queens so trying to save them can be a costly business.

[brothermoo]

I had a laying worker colony severely depleted so I took them off the stand and across the field, dumped them out, cut out all drone brood to leave what stores were left in the frames which I placed back in the new colony I put on the stand. I figure I would save the foragers left but have a strong force loyal to the new queen. Here's hoping it works as I have made enough mistakes with this particular hive to learn a few things this year!

[Geo224]

Shaking out is an old myth which does not sort out the situation unless you mean shaking out as in dumping them!
A drone laying queen will fly back to the hive and laying workers can also fly in spite of what you read in a lot of books.
if you have a drone laying queen, you need to find her, remove her then requeen.
That's the best case scenario.
If you have laying workers you can faff around and try and rescue the colony but it is basically a write off and you would be best advised to forget about it and start again with a few frames of fresh bees in order to make up a nuc.
laying worker colonies tend to kill introduced queens so trying to save them can be a costly business.

Yeah meant shaking out away from hive or shaking in front of another hive see if they get excepted? One of my drone laying colonies are starting to make Q cells maybe I can put a frame of eggs in this one see what happens!

[Geo224]

I had a laying worker colony severely depleted so I took them off the stand and across the field, dumped them out, cut out all drone brood to leave what stores were left in the frames which I placed back in the new colony I put on the stand. I figure I would save the foragers left but have a strong force loyal to the new queen. Here's hoping it works as I have made enough mistakes with this particular hive to learn a few things this year!

Yeah beekeeping can be challenging! Most seasons really lol.