Balling a queen

[Jon]

I had a queen balled today.
It was in a nuc made up with an introduced queen on July 1st so most of the bees in it were offspring of the queen in question.
The queen was on a frame of eggs and larvae I wanted to replace with a frame of sealed brood to give it a boost.
I lifted the queen on to the top of the next frame and they immediately started to ball her.
I put her in a cage but I failed to close it up properly and she got out and when I checked 10 minutes later they had her cooked.
I have seen queens getting balled during a unite gone wrong between two colonies but have not noticed this before.
This was a very quiet non agitated 5 frame nuc.
I noticed a thread on beekeeping forum where folk were complaining about queens getting balled for no reason.
I have spare queens so not the end of the world but it has made me think about minimizing any interventions at the moment.
The nuc in question is on the 4th week of Apiguard treatment but has not shown any untoward reactions.
I have had it open several times with no aggression shown towards the queen.
This just came out of the blue.

[gavin]

As always Dave Cushman has some interesting words on the topic, some thoughts of his own and others from Wedmore.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/queenball.html

Was there any robbing going on - wasps or other bees? That could put them on edge and willing to have a go at something that doesn't smell/look/behave quite right.

That stuff about depressions in the comb is intriguing.

[Adam]

Balling was first ever seen by me - this weekend. I was checking an introduced queen. She had been in the hive for a week - a polynuc - previously been in a mini-nuc and laying from around 1 August. No eggs on the frames. Saw a lump of bees at the bottom of one frame moved it with my finger and noticed a long leg. "That looks like a queen" thought I. It was and I popped her back in the cage with 2 sheets of newspaper over the opening. I've not been in since. The introduced queen is (was?) a dark one. The removed queen was quite yellow - with some Italian in her. I guess I need to leave it another week before I have a look.

[nemphlar]

Seen my first balling of a queen today, she looked the business and was laying well in the nuc a few weeks ago, but when I checked today just the odd random egg and brood. Found her in a clump. Removed her and joined with another. Seen more weird s!!t in the last 4 years thAn I've seen in the previous 20