An experiment was recently done here in Fairbanks to address laying workers. The experiment was a great success!
Problem:
Laying workers are female honeybees that have developed ovaries and lay multiple eggs in each empty honeycomb cell. This occurs when a colony is queenless for an extended period of time (say a couple weeks or more). All worker eggs are unfertilized and become drones if they make it entirely through the metamorphosis. This is very undesirable because the comb becomes drone comb and who wants a colony full of drones?
Solution:
Cage the queen.
Take all frames that have no cells with multiple eggs out of the hive and brush the bees off both sides over the hive. Store them in cool, indoor storage.
Lay a white queen or king-sized sheet out on the ground at least 100 feet away from the hive.
Take all frames with bees and walk over to the sheet.
Brush the bees off of each frame onto the sheet.
Hang the caged queen in the middle of the top box of the hive.
Release the queen a couple days later.
Perform a complete hive check in a week to 10 days.
The colony should be rid of the laying workers because they shouldn't return to the colony with workers who have not developed ovaries.
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