ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 69 



the other way they would possibly kill all the queens, and, as Mr. 

 Dadant suggested, you would have a number of queenless colonies. 



Mr. KiLDOw. — I also think that they would be wasting time in 

 trying to swarm, and getting back. 



Mr. Pettit. — I would consider that it is taking too big a chance 

 on the queen conditions of the colonies. Colonies that are re-queened, 

 if they do not get a queen within a certain time, become hopelessly 

 queenless and it is a pretty poor proposition. 



Question. — Why do the bees ball an old queen even when they 

 have no queen cells, or young queens? 



Mr. Kildow — That is one of the things we cannot tell. 



The President. — I have known it to occur. Can you answer 

 it, Mr. Kildow? 



Mr. Kildow. — It is something I cannot understand. 



Mr. Heinzel. — I know it has been done, I cannot say why. 



Mr. Kildow. — They do it in an angry moment. 



Mr. Heinzel. — I know lots of times when I disturb them they 

 get to balling the queens, and you cannot save them. 



The Secretary. — Don't they ball them to protect them? 



Mr. King. — You break the cluster, they catch right on again. 



Mr. Bishop. — I have had quite a little experience with that. 

 When I am clipping my queens in the spring, I frequently have had 

 them ball the queen, and so I carry a little cup or something along 

 with me, with some water in it, and I have also ' some queen cages 

 along with me. Well, if they should happen to ball a queen, I pick 

 up the bunch of bees and throw them down into the water, and the 

 worker bees all get off, then I pick up the queen and just clip her an,d 

 put her in a cage and put her back in the hive and close the hive; in 

 a few days I go back and take the cage out, and everything is all well 

 and good and I never lost one of them. 



The President. — That was balhng at the time of clipping? 



Mr. Bishop. — Yes, that was due, I understand, to disturbances. 



The President. — You change the order of the queen by handling 

 her. 



Mr. Bishop. — Yes. I have never lost a queen in that way. 



Mr. Heinzel. — I have had them ball when I did not have hold 

 of them at all, and I guess it is not the change of order from the hands. 



Mr. Bishop. — I have had most of those queens balled, under- 

 stand, before getting the queens, while looking at them; I would find 

 them on the bottom board, but I never could tell whether they balled 

 after I clipped and put them back, because I closed the hive. 



Mr. Kildow. — In a good many cases, when you open the hives 

 the queen seems to get frightened and she runs and fights and squeals 

 and they will grab her, I have had them sting her before they ball her ; 

 it seems the first one that grabbed her, stung her and killed her right 

 there. It seemed to me it was caused through fright. Sometimes, if 

 you feed them, they will ball her. I have noticed often when the 

 queen starts to run and makes a noise, then they attack her. 



Mr.- Tyler. — I had a httle experience this summer when I noticed 

 a ball of bees drop to the bottom, they were balling the queen, I shook 

 the bees off. She was clipped, and I knew positively that that queen 



