Queen balling

[David Morland]

Today I was inspecting one of my strongest colonies, with a vigorous 2020 queen. Bees on 11 frames and up into supers, brood on 7 frames. First pass through I couldn't spot the marked queen, because the frames were crammed with bees, so I went though again blowing the bees off the frames. I came across a ball of bees, in the middle of which was the queen. They were gripping her quite tenaciously and it was difficult to separate her from them, although they immediately dived in again. I put her on the top of the frames but the workers were still homing in, with abdomens curved round. She appeared unharmed but was being pestered all the time I was able to get a picture when there were few bees clinging on and before she disappeared between the frames.
I have seen this when introducing a new queen which I can understand - any ideas why this was happening?
3018

[gavin]

I've seen queen balling in spring (in Belfast!) at the time of the first invasive inspection when there had been an unnoticed supersedure. The bees seemed to take the cue of the inspection to ball the old (and serviceable, just) old queen, leaving the supersedure unmated virgin to 'carry on the good work'!

Did you see good brood? One patch or two?

[David Morland]

I've seen queen balling in spring (in Belfast!) at the time of the first invasive inspection when there had been an unnoticed supersedure. The bees seemed to take the cue of the inspection to ball the old (and serviceable, just) old queen, leaving the supersedure unmated virgin to 'carry on the good work'!

Did you see good brood? One patch or two?

There was plenty of brood, including a whole frame of drone brood and several uncharged queen cups. I posted this on the Scottish Beekeepers facebook group and got a couple of interesting replies, one that referred me to Dave Cushman where there is a good article on the subject. In the article he mentioned that this is more common than one would imagine and is sometimes evidenced by areas of comb which are missing and the underlying foundation is polished, where queen balling has taken place. I had seen these and thought they were the result of mice! The other comment was from TJ who said he had seen this before and was pretty alarmed to see his precious queen being killed, but she was unharmed. Apparently it is thought that the workers are protecting the queen and can happen at anytime. I'll follow up in a weeks time and be able to say whether my queen is still OK.

[Adam]

I haven't seen balling for some time and then it was with new queens. in those cases I pulled the bees off (apparently you're not supposed to do that) and popped her in a cage (I always have one in my pocket) so the bees could let her out when I was far away from the hive.

[fatshark]

I had a Q in a swarm balled yesterday, the day after hiving it. I was just having a quick check to see which of my marked and clipped queens (Ha! ... the swarm was by my apiary and there are a couple of queens I'd yet to see this year, and might have been late supersedures) was in the swarm and found a golf ball-sized clump of workers slaughtering the queen on the floor of the hive.

She wasn't one of my queens anyway :D

[Mellifera Crofter]

... in those cases I pulled the bees off (apparently you're not supposed to do that) ...

Why shouldn't one try to pull the bees away from a queen, Adam? Is the thinking that they would leave her if you just ignore it?
Kitta

[Adam]

I think the concern is that the queen might get stung if you pulled the bees off her. I vaguely recall that the suggested remidy was to put the ball in a tub of water. However, how many beekeepers have on handy 'just in case?' Although I have a queen cage in my bee suit pocket at all times, I don't have a water container - I am not THAT organised!