Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I had my first encounter with a drone-laying queen this week. I had noticed this colony was a little weaker and slower to build up than the rest, but in my recent quick inspections I had found the queen and had seen eggs/larvae, so just assumed they were slower coming out of winter...

The other day I did a thorough check and found A LOT of mature drones, hatching drones, and random bullet-shaped caps in worker-sized cells. I saw ZERO capped worker brood, and now know the eggs/larvae I saw were drones in regular cells. Luckily, I spotted the queen and was able to dispatch her.

I had another strong colony in swarm prep mode, so found that queen, removed her and made a strong "simulated swarm" split, and did a newspaper combine with the drone-laying colony. I've never encountered this before, so hopefully was able to save the drone-laying colony and keep the other from swarming.

What have others done with drone-laying colonies?

Sounds like your plan is as good as any I have seen. You're keeping the remaining workers from that hive in a productive situation and lessening swarm probabilities.

I had what I presumed was a laying worker colony several years ago. It may have been a drone layer, but I'm not sure. Whatever was making drones was prolific. Fortunately, some of Olav Rueppell's students at UNC-G needed drones for research. We literally shook 4-5 pounds of drones into old 3lb package containers. I've never had a request for that many drones since, but that was the best solution to drone layers that I have encountered.