Hello All,
I am an avid reader of beekeeping books, Having read most published in the
U.S. I have been reading books from around the world printed in English. The
book I am currently reading is "The complete Book of Beekeeping" by Herbert
Mace (U.K. copy 1976)

I always find points of interest in most bee books but usually nothing
completely new to me. However at the start of chapter 8 on spring management
I read about a event I have not seen before . The author says is common in
Feb. in the U.K. when hives are opened early in the season. His cure for the
queen ball was interesting also.

Quote from page 92 of the book:
"For some reason which has never been fathomed ,a stock that is opened at
this time may possibly ball the queen. It does sometimes happen at other
times, not at this stage , when there is little brood, a stock which has
been disturbed by smoking seems to become panic-stricken and a lot of bees
rush to the queen and surround her so closely that, if she is not quickly
released , she is suffocated. It has been suggested that this is because of
the colonies extreme anxiety to protect her at this critical moment. At
any rate it happens most frequently at a time when there are no young bees
but only old overwintered bees, If it is really necessary to risk an
examination at this time , a sharp lookout must be kept and if the bees run
around hurriedly , the ball, about the size of a walnut will be seen rolling
around on the floor. Prompt action needs to be taken , the best plan being
to pick the ball up and drop into water, when the bees break away the queen
can be picked out. If there is no water handy-you have been warned there
should be-smoke the ball heavily until the queen is released. This is not
enough , for as likely as not, she will be balled again when you have gone
away. She must be caged on a comb for for a few hours and released later
on."

I thought about the above for a couple days. We open hives in February to
place pollen patties but never dig into the hive before the queen starts
laying. I see no need to and also queens are hard to find after queen
rearing stops. the queens abdomen shrinks in size. When we are getting "blow
bees" up north we never try to find the queen in a broodless hive as she
looks almost like a worker.

What are the temps in the U.K. normally in February on a nice day? To find a
broodless hive in the Midwest we would need to look right now until the
start of the longer days around the 20th. of December. All our first checks
almost always we see some amount of brood so maybe why I have never seen the
queen balled at this time of year.

comments:

bob

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