Requeening over a laying worker?

[romduck]

Of my two hives, one superceded a poor queen and is now going gangbusters.

The other one that started out great in the Spring is now led by a laying worker. Loads of drones in the hive and nothing but capped drone cells for brood.

I know that I'll have to order a new queen and requeen this hive, but with all the talk of recent difficulties with re-queening I'd like to give her the best shot.

I understand that to get rid of the laying worker, I'll have to shake out the hive >100yds away.

How long before I re-queen should this be done?

Should I wait until I'm about to put the new queen or should I shake and then let the field bees get settled back in their hive for a certain amount of time.

I've read up on the general re-queening procedure but this is the first time that I'm re-queening for any reason so any input would be greatly appreciated.

THanks.

[thegolfpsycho]

You might be better off shaking them out and storing the equipment until next year.  I don't know your climate there, but by the time you get a queen, she gets released and lays up any brood, their emergence would be almost October.  It's usually cooling off pretty good by then, and it doesn't sound like you have much of a worker population coming on to support them.