By sheer co-incidence, or luck, I was checking out a hive with an
extremely valuable queen and found her balled; badly balled. I placed
her in a cage with five young bees and removed her. She had not been
injured. Notwithstanding the cause of the balling (most likely: drifting; I
am busy moving colonies around the countryside) the challenge here
is reintroduction. After two hours, she went back into the (roaring) hive
in the cage suspended by wire between two populous brood frames.
Tomorrow, I plan to place her in a 10cm by 10cm cage made from
metal mosquito wire. This cage is 15mm deep; 5mm will be sunk into
wax of cleaned cells, ready for eggs. She will be installed with a few
young bees in the cage. The idea is that she will be more readily
re-accepted by the colony if she is laying eggs. If all works out, she will
be released after three to four days. Is this methodology OK? I simply
CANNOT lose this queen.

Barry Sergeant
Kyalami
South Africa