Watched balling

[jonnybeegood]

I just went through one of my hives & third frame in found a frantic ball of bees, i seperated the ball thinking something had got in the hive to find the queen in the middle, her wings were tatty & she looked sweaty, she got out of it so i put the frame back, went through the box & found 3 charged queen cells together. I went back to look for the queen again & they had her again, i'm guessing she was being superseded & they were killing her? Very exciting to watch, poor girl.
This is the hive i combined with a nuc a few days ago. I killed the queen out of the nuc so this was the other from the main hive. She has been laying well, why are they doing this? Should i have removed her?

 

[jonnybeegood]

You can see the tip of the queens abdomen here after i pushed some bees off.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

I just went through one of my hives & third frame in found a frantic ball of bees..........
This is the hive i combined with a nuc a few days ago.

Personally, I always leave them a week after the unite to settle down. Inspecting just a few days later may have panicked the bees resulting in a balling?

 

[jonnybeegood]

Personally, I always leave them a week after the unite to settle down. Inspecting just a few days later may have panicked the bees resulting in a balling?

You may be right but I think it was just my timing, by the look of the queen they had been doing this for a little while, i dont know how long it takes but the q cells suggested to me they were planning on doing it. If i hadnt seen it i would have been searching for her for ages.

 

[masterBK]

Balling often triggered by excessive interferance by beekeeper and can occur after uniting two different groups of bees. Next time you unite leave them alone for a few more days before opening them up. Queens being balled can be rescued by dropping the ball in water and fishing her out to be reintroduced back to the colony using a fiondant release cage

 

[jonnybeegood]

Balling often triggered by excessive interferance by beekeeper and can occur after uniting two different groups of bees. Next time you unite leave them alone for a few more days before opening them up. Queens being balled can be rescued by dropping the ball in water and fishing her out to be reintroduced back to the colony using a fiondant release cage

Yes another lesson learnt, i only opened up to check as i thought a hive had swarmed & was checking this one in case it wasnt happy sbout uniting & had swarmed. At least now i can leave this one for a while & hopefully with a new queen hopefully its one less to swarm this year, hopefully!

 

[masterBK]

When I paper unite I use an excluder to hold the paper down so I know which box contains the queen when I need to reduce them down to one box. The excluder also prevents the queen wandering into the other group of bees too early and keeps her surrounded by her own kind. Bees go through paper very quickly so for extra safety when uniting put the queen in a fondant release cage which takes quite a while (12 hours+ ) for her to be released and by which time the workers from both groups are best of buddies.

 

[jonnybeegood]

When I paper unite I use an excluder to hold the paper down so I know which box contains the queen when I need to reduce them down to one box. The excluder also prevents the queen wandering into the other group of bees too early and keeps her surrounded by her own kind. Bees go through paper very quickly so for extra safety when uniting put the queen in a fondant release cage which takes quite a while (12 hours+ ) for her to be released and by which time the workers from both groups are best of buddies.

I did that last year & the bees in the top box , not being used to it, wouldnt go through the excluder , & made Q cells thinking they were Q less. I ended up with two queens in the same hive living side by side.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Ok, i went back into this hive today expecting to see no queen & a couple of q cells, instead the queen was there, & there were about 8 capped q cells?
I decided to remove & kill the queen, removed all but the biggest Q cell & see how it goes, i will check for Q cells in a week, i guess they werent looking to supercede this queen but it looked like swarming was iminant, all thosed capped Q cells & not swarmed though seemed odd, any ideas?

 

[Fatbee]

Are you sure it was the previous queen and not an already hatched virgin? Any eggs?

I had a queen balled yesterday from a captured swarm. Is quite a shocking site. Was checking to see eggs but none seen so I think it was a cast that I had retrieved. Shut up and left them to it. Imagine my opening up caused it. Will now leave but expect to have a q- colony requiring a new queen soon - didn't fancy her chances. Who knows, may be another virgin in there

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ok, i went back into this hive today expecting to see no queen & a couple of q cells, instead the queen was there, & there were about 8 capped q cells?
I decided to remove & kill the queen, removed all but the biggest Q cell & see how it goes, i will check for Q cells in a week, i guess they werent looking to supercede this queen but it looked like swarming was iminant, all thosed capped Q cells & not swarmed though seemed odd, any ideas?

Hmm killed the queen. That's sorted that problem out then.

 

[oliver90owner]

That's sorted that problem out then.

Hmmm and left one sealed cell which might yet turn out to be a dud. But maybe that will be thought of as a different problem! Thinking would give some brain ache, I reckon.

 

[kazmcc]

When I paper unite I use an excluder to hold the paper down so I know which box contains the queen when I need to reduce them down to one box. The excluder also prevents the queen wandering into the other group of bees too early and keeps her surrounded by her own kind. Bees go through paper very quickly so for extra safety when uniting put the queen in a fondant release cage which takes quite a while (12 hours+ ) for her to be released and by which time the workers from both groups are best of buddies.

Ahh good tip masterBK! This is getting pencilled into my manual

Not a nice experience jonnybeegood. Can't be a nice way to go for her. The brutal life of bees :/

 

[jonnybeegood]

Are you sure it was the previous queen and not an already hatched virgin? Any eggs?

I had a queen balled yesterday from a captured swarm. Is quite a shocking site. Was checking to see eggs but none seen so I think it was a cast that I had retrieved. Shut up and left them to it. Imagine my opening up caused it. Will now leave but expect to have a q- colony requiring a new queen soon - didn't fancy her chances. Who knows, may be another virgin in there

You never know, i think my inspecting caused the balling too soon after uniting. Yes it was the original queen as she was marked , strange how they left her alone again. There were eggs so she was laying.

 

[jonnybeegood]

That's sorted that problem out then.

Hmmm and left one sealed cell which might yet turn out to be a dud. But maybe that will be thought of as a different problem! Thinking would give some brain ache, I reckon.

So? If it doesnt hatch i'll put eggs in from another hive, not the end of the world is it? Jees! I wish i was perfect too Lol

 

[jonnybeegood]

Ahh good tip masterBK! This is getting pencilled into my manual

Not a nice experience jonnybeegood. Can't be a nice way to go for her. The brutal life of bees :/

No, she went in the feezer again, i can squash bees but it doesnt seem right doing it to Hrh.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Hmm killed the queen. That's sorted that problem out then.

Well i could have put her in a nuc with frames & bees etc & saved her just in case but this time of year its not really a problem rearing another queen is it, & i dont want to make increase. So what did i do wrong ? What would you have done?