Laying worker genes

This is a rant rather than a question! This year I inherited a colony which was a bit ratty so have used it to make nucs from and put queencells in. All three nucs have failed - the bees seem pre-programmed to develop into laying workers within just a few days of being queenless - even with brood in the hive. In one case an extra frame of brood and a second queencell stopped the laying workers* only to find that the virgin queen disappeared a couple of days after emerging and for the LW to resume. Most frustrating! The bees have now been combined with other colonies and the drone brood allowed to die. I don't want those drones around the apiary! Usually there is "plenty of time" for virgins to emerge and colonies to remain sensible - as my others have been this year!

* I've tried to rescue LW colonies before and said never again. I need to stick to my rules!

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Originally Posted by Adam

This is a rant rather than a question! This year I inherited a colony which was a bit ratty so have used it to make nucs from and put queencells in. All three nucs have failed -]

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Classic we are not accepting "new genes". The mongrels in my area would do similar to any foreign material...but not the laying worker bit.
The most extreme example I ever witnessed was a hive of local bees, (queen removed) and newspaper united to hive of Italian bees then reduced into one brood box. They divided the area into half local and half Italian, bit like a zebra with 2 stripes. The new queen was laying but only in "her half" of the box. Didn't get going until the old mongtrels died off. I should say this was very extreme and I've only ever seen it once.
Been a funny year for queen mating's (in my area) as well. Ideal conditions but few off and laying. Yet in other areas they are finding it easy peasy...as usual no two years are ever the same and local conditions dominate...and also serve to confuse the information flow...