Originally Posted by
lindsay s
I’ve been waiting for an iffy queen to start laying in one of my poly nucs for the last few weeks. She’s little bit small but I was hoping she’d fill out. The bees have got rid of most of their drones and there have been no Q cells made on the bar of open brood they were given. Today was going to be her last chance for eggs or she was for the chop. She’s not laying yet!
On arrival today there was a lot of robbing going on nearby. The owner of the other hives hasn’t been feeding his bees yet and they are in robbing mode. I’ve been feeding all of my nucs and they have narrowed entrances and should be able to defend themselves. On inspecting the nuc I found the bees were balling the queen. After I had separated the ball the queen took to the air and landed on the front of the nuc and re-entered. I found her on another frame and the bees were starting to ball her again. I shut the nuc and have left them to their own devices. Could the queen not yet be laying because of all the robbing going on or is she just duff anyway and it might have been her own bees balling her. I’m going to sort them out once and for all next weekend. I welcome all opinions.
Ps I’ve come across queens being balled before and feared the worst, only to find them running about fine on the next inspection.