Honey bee colonies that have been queenless and broodless for a period of time will develop laying workers. A colony will eventually die without a queen to lay more young workers, but it cannot raise its own queen. Colonies that have laying workers are unlikely to accept a new queen due to the physiological and behavioral changes in laying workers. Laying workers have developed their ovaries and will become hostile toward a real queen bee, and they can only lay unfertilized eggs that will develop into drones. If a beekeeper tries to introduce a caged mated queen, it’s likely that the laying worker colony will reject and kill the introduced queen. Beekeepers therefore need a method to fix a laying worker colony so that it does not simply dwindle in population and die off.
Combine colony with queen
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A laying worker colony -- top, white box -- is combined with a queenright colony -- bottom, green box -- using newspaper.
Honey bees start removing the newspaper.
Honey bees have removed the newspaper from inside the hive.
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