> There are some notes on queen balling on the page...
> http://dave-cushman.net/bee/queenball.html

Good job on the page Dave!

I have seen plenty of balling the queen when hand releasing queens. The most
was with trying to introduce a Russian queen into an Italian nuc. One hive i
kept the Russian queen caged for around 10 days as each time I lifted the
push in cage the bees went to balling the queen.  Most a week. many times
the bees will have a queen cell hid and will honor the queen cell by trying
to ball the new queen. other hives will ignore a dozen queen cells and
accept the queen.

I have never
tried the water method but will next spring with nucs. Usually I can break
enough of the ball with my fingers to free the queen.

I have also seen AHB hives quick to ball a European queen.

I honestly can say I have not seen queens balled with spring inspection but
some brood is in the hive.

bob

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