Possible Laying worker

[Dunkel]

Well the poor laying queen got knocked off a month ago,  but I checked them today and found drone larva and capped drones and no brood.   I also saw a couple of queen cells uncapped but with larva in them.

Are they trying to make a queen from drone larva?  Queen too early and poorly mated and bees got rid of her too?  I have a couple of nucs with queens laying, can I combine?  I have some queen cells capped in another hive, can I just add one of these frames with a cell and it be excepted?

[Perry]

Any queen cells they are trying to raise on their own will be duds. It will be unfertilized drone larvae.
Careful combining, you could lose a good queen that way unless the queenright hive is powerful and the drone hive is not.
I would be inclined to try your third suggestion and introduce a frame with open brood with capped queen cells.

[LazyBkpr]

I'm with Perry. Laying workers can be more of a pain than they are worth. If you have the capped queen cells it would be worth a try.
   In an ideal setting I would add a frame of brood and let the pheromones of the brood suppress the laying workers for a week, THEN introduce another frame with the queen cells, but you work with what you have. If they dont tear the queen cells open you have a good shot!

[brooksbeefarm]

Over the years i have tried many ways to save a laying worker hive. Yes, it can sometimes be done, But i have found it is not worth the time, effort, or cost. Like my cows, i can run a good one where i had a bad one. Jack

[rodmaker]

   I had two hives with laying workers and saved both. I gave each hive a frame of brood all stages waited a week and repeated they started raising queens on the second frame. Now two months later and both hives are booming.

[Dunkel]

Update,  a queen cell worked and she is laying up a storm.  They are still set back pretty bad though.  I may snag some of their pulled frames to use on some others while they get going.

[brooksbeefarm]

Dunkel, if they was mine i would pull some brood from some of my strong hives to build them up, if you pull drawn frames from them it will set them back farther. JMHO. Jack

[LazyBkpr]

Very glad to hear that!!!
   I am with Jack, pull a little brood to keep the strong hives from swarming and let that weak recovering hive MAKE some honey! Just make sure they have the bees to cover the brood you give them and they will explode.