Laying Workers

Finding laying workers in your hive is never good news. It means the colony has been queenless long enough for workers to start producing eggs — and since workers can't mate, those eggs will only produce drones. Without intervention, the colony is doomed. Let's talk about what's happening and your realistic options.

What Are Laying Workers?

Normally, only the queen lays eggs. She produces a pheromone that suppresses the ovaries of worker bees. But when a colony becomes queenless and stays queenless for about 2-3 weeks, some workers' ovaries activate and they begin laying eggs.

Here's the problem: worker bees never mated. They can only produce unfertilized eggs, which develop into drones (males). A colony that can only produce drones cannot sustain itself — no new workers means no foragers, no nurses, no colony.

Why Queens Lay Properly

A mated queen stores sperm in her spermatheca and can fertilize eggs as she lays them. Fertilized eggs become female (workers or queens); unfertilized eggs become male (drones). She lays one egg per cell, centered at the bottom.

Why Worker Eggs Are Different

Workers have shorter abdomens and can't reach the cell bottom to lay properly. They also lack the precision of a queen. Multiple workers may lay in the same cell, and eggs end up scattered on cell walls rather than neatly centered at the bottom.

How to Identify Laying Workers

The Telltale Signs

• Multiple eggs per cell. A queen lays one egg per cell, period. Two, three, or more eggs scattered in a cell is a classic laying worker sign.
• Eggs on cell walls. Queen-laid eggs stand upright at the center of the cell bottom. Worker-laid eggs are often stuck to the sides of cells at odd angles.
• Drone brood in worker cells. Drones developing in normal (worker-sized) cells produce a distinctive raised, bullet-shaped capping — workers in those cells would have flat cappings.
• Scattered, spotty pattern. Laying workers don't lay methodically. You'll see random cells with eggs amid empty cells, rather than the solid pattern a queen produces.
• No queen, no queen cells. If there's no queen and no emergency queen cells, the colony has given up on requeening naturally.

Laying Workers vs. Drone-Laying Queen

A drone-laying queen is different — she's a queen who has run out of sperm or was never properly mated. She can only produce unfertilized (drone) eggs.

• Drone-laying queen: One egg per cell, at the bottom, in an organized pattern — but all develop into drones
• Laying workers: Multiple eggs per cell, scattered placement, on cell walls, chaotic pattern

The distinction matters because a drone-laying queen can be replaced; laying worker colonies are much harder to fix.

Why Laying Workers Develop

Laying workers develop when a colony has been queenless and broodless for about 2-3 weeks or more. During this time:

1. The queen dies, swarms without leaving a successor, or is removed
2. The colony tries to make an emergency queen from young larvae
3. Emergency queen fails (virgin killed, failed mating, etc.) or no young larvae were available
4. Without queen pheromone or open brood pheromone, worker ovaries activate
5. Workers begin laying — usually starting 2-3 weeks after becoming hopelessly queenless

Common Scenarios

• Queen died and no eggs/young larvae were available to raise a replacement
• Virgin queen was lost on her mating flight
• Beekeeper accidentally killed the queen and didn't notice for weeks
• Small swarm without a viable queen

Your Options (Honest Assessment)

Let's be real: laying worker colonies are very difficult to save. Many experienced beekeepers don't even try — the effort often isn't worth it when you could spend that time and resources on productive colonies.

Option 1: Combine with a Strong Colony (Recommended)

The most practical solution is to combine the laying worker colony with a strong, queenright colony using the newspaper method.

Why it works: The laying workers are absorbed into the larger colony. The queenright colony's queen pheromone suppresses their ovaries. You preserve the workforce rather than losing everything.

Potential issue: Sometimes laying workers attack the queen in the receiving colony. To minimize risk, some beekeepers shake out the laying worker colony first (Option 3) and let bees beg their way into other hives over a few days.

Option 2: Try to Requeen (Low Success Rate)

You can try introducing a new queen, but success rates are poor. Laying workers often kill introduced queens because they "think" they already have a queen (themselves).

If you want to try:

1. Give frames of open brood (eggs and young larvae) from another colony
2. Wait a week for the open brood pheromone to suppress laying workers
3. Then introduce a caged queen with extended release (5-7 days)
4. Check carefully before releasing

Even with this protocol, expect failure more often than not. Multiple laying workers are difficult to suppress.

Option 3: Shake Out the Colony

If you don't want to risk combining with a queenright colony, you can shake all the bees out some distance from the apiary.

1. Move the laying worker hive 100+ feet away from other hives
2. Shake all bees off the frames onto the ground
3. Remove the empty equipment

Most foragers will fly back and beg their way into other colonies. Non-foragers (including most laying workers, who are typically younger bees) will die. It sounds harsh, but those bees were doomed anyway — this way your equipment and other colonies aren't put at risk.

Option 4: Let Nature Take Its Course

You can simply do nothing and let the colony dwindle. The laying worker colony will die out within 4-6 weeks as existing workers age out and no new workers emerge. This approach:

• Wastes no resources on a lost cause
• But ties up equipment and space
• And the dying colony may be robbed, which can spread disease

How to Combine or Shake Out

Newspaper Combine Method

1. Place a sheet of newspaper on top of the queenright colony's top brood box
2. Poke a few small holes in the paper with a hive tool or pen
3. Set the laying worker colony's boxes on top of the newspaper
4. The bees will chew through the paper over 1-2 days, gradually mixing
5. By the time they meet, they'll smell alike and accept each other

After combining, you can consolidate equipment during your next inspection.

Shake Out Method

1. Late in the day, move the laying worker hive at least 100 feet from the apiary
2. Remove all frames and shake bees onto the ground in front of the hive
3. Take the empty equipment away immediately
4. Foragers will fly back to where the hive was, then disperse to other hives
5. Non-foragers on the ground will either make it to other hives or die

Prevention Strategies

The best cure is prevention — catching queenlessness early before laying workers develop.

• Regular inspections. Check for eggs every 2-3 weeks during the active season. No eggs = investigate immediately.
• Learn to spot queen cells. Emergency queen cells or supersedure cells tell you something's changing.
• Keep a resource colony. Having at least one strong queenright colony means you can donate a frame of eggs/young brood to any colony that needs to raise a queen.
• Act fast on queenlessness. If you find a colony queenless with no eggs, give them eggs/young larvae from another hive immediately, or order a queen.
• Know the timeline. You have about 2-3 weeks after losing a queen before laying workers develop. Act within that window.