I had a Queen balled when she was introduced to a newly constructed nuc
comprised of frames of brood from a few different donor colonies. I used my
fingers to brush the aggressive bees balling her off of her (on the floor
of the nuc) and retrieved her back to her mating nuc. I did not see any
venom sacs on her, and that same cursory inspection didn’t reveal any
missing limbs from having something bitten off…

I had presumed balled queens got stung to death, and that I had prevented
that from occurring with my rescue, but I too am interested in the subject
having realized I just don’t know what does occur in that ball of
confusion.

Jonathan Knisely
New Haven, CT

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