Drone laying queen
A drone laying queen is a queen bee that primarily lays unfertilized eggs, which develop into drones (male bees). This condition typically arises when a queen runs out of stored sperm (after mating flights) or if she was never properly mated. A colony with a drone laying queen will have a poor or failing brood pattern consisting mainly or entirely of drone brood. Drone brood are capped and raised in worker cells, appearing raised and uneven. A drone laying queen cannot sustain a healthy worker bee population, leading to colony decline. Requeening is usually necessary to correct this issue. Diagnosing a drone laying queen involves inspecting brood patterns and confirming the presence of primarily drone brood.
- Requeening5
Requeening is the most reliable solution for a drone laying queen. Replacing the failing queen with a new, mated queen restores the colony's ability to produce worker bees. A new mated queen will lay fertilized eggs, leading to a normal brood pattern and colony recovery. Requeening is the standard…
📌 commercial4/16/2025, 9:22:01 PM
🛠️ Queen cage, hive tool
- Combine with a queenright hive4
Combining a hive with a drone laying queen with a strong, queenright hive is an alternative to requeening. The queenright colony, with its functional queen, will take over the combined colony. The drone laying queen will typically be superseded or eliminated by the bees in the queenright colony.…
📌 diy4/16/2025, 9:22:01 PM
🛠️ Newspaper, hive tool
- Shake out bees and requeen3
Shaking out bees and requeening is a more drastic method for addressing a drone laying queen. It involves shaking all bees out of the hive with the drone laying queen, destroying the drone comb (combs with drone brood), and then requeening the hive with a new mated queen into clean or disinfected…
📌 diy4/16/2025, 9:22:01 PM
🛠️ Queen cage, hive tool, extra hive equipment