One of the queens I raised this year has turned out to be a drone layer.
Signs of Drone Laying Queen
How does it happen and how do we know whether it’s a drone laying queen or drone laying workers?
A drone Laying Queen (DLQ) has either:
- failed to mate successfully and has no sperm
- or she’s run out of sperm
If she were an existing queen who’d been laying normally but run out of sperm, the workers would probably have superseded her but as this is a new queen I know it’s a mating problem.
Drone Laying Workers (DLW) occur when:
- The colony is hopelessly queenless
- The colony has had no brood for more than 3-4 weeks
Why does it happen?
- There is no Queen or brood pheromone
- These pheromones inhibit the development of the workers rudimentary ovaries
- The rudimentary ovaries become active and produce a few eggs
- However, workers can’t mate because the don’t have the necessary reproductive organs
- So, there is no sperm to fertilise the eggs
- And therefore they can only produce drones.
Signs of Drone Laying Workers
Here are some comparisons between the two:
|
DRONE LAYING QUEEN |
DRONE LAYING WORKERS |
|
Queen present |
No queen |
|
Regular laying pattern as normal brood |
Scattered ‘pepperpot’ brood pattern |
|
Single eggs in bottom of cells |
Multiple eggs on side of cells (worker abdomen not long enough to reach to the bottom) |
|
Domed cappings typical of drone brood |
Knobbly raised cappings |
|
Nice arch of capped stores above the brood area |
No stores |
|
Calm behaviour with no signs of queenlessness |
Listless air and lack of purpose in the colony |
|
Normal foraging for nectar and pollen |
No foraging |
|
New queen accepted by workers |
New queen killed by workers |
|
Will build queen cells on a frame of eggs if you cull the DLQ |
Eggs and larvae killed and eaten by workers |
What can be done?
- Normally the DLQ can be replaced with another queen
- You need to act quickly whilst there are still enough young nurse bees to look after her brood
- You might have to add a frame of sealed brood to boost the numbers if it’s a Nuc or small colony
- Early in the season (May to july) you can add a frame of eggs to produce queen cells
- In the case of DLW’s the colony has no future. All you can do is to shake then out on the edge of the apiary on a sunny day and hope they will be able to beg their way into another hive.
What now?
In this case it’s not a complete disaster, I still have options:
- Give them a new queen
- Give them a frame of eggs
- Merge them with another colony
Decision points
- Do I want to commit one of my other queens to this little colony? No
- Is it getting too late in the season for making new queens? Yes
- Are there going to be enough drones around for mating when a new virgin queen emerges? No
- What’s the weather like for mating flights? Grotty
- We’re entering winter preparation mode and need all our colonies to be strong with young laying queens. Yes
Action
- Cull the DLQ and merge with another colony
by Alan Baxter
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