78 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



and as soon as she is seen the end of the frame held bv 

 the right hand is rested upon the hive, the right hand 

 catches the queen, and she is then allowed to run upon 

 the leg of my trousers, upon the thigh (it is an exceed- 

 ingly rare thing that a laying queen will offer to fly), 

 and then I catch her in the hollow^ of my right hand, 

 holding her in the hollow formed by the three fingers, 

 while with the thumb and forefinger I am free to handle 

 the frame at leisure. 



BEES BALLING QUEEN. 



When a colony is being oyerhauled, it sometimes 

 happens that the queen is found balled. This balling 

 is likely more because the colony, being frightened, is 

 seeking to protect the queen than because of any hostility 

 to her. Fig. 30 shows a queen thus balled, or rather the 

 balling bees are shown, the queen being hidden by them. 

 The ball is small, whereas a ball of bees bent on the de- 

 struction of a strange queen is likely to be as large as a 

 hickory-nut, or larger. 



Whether the object of the bees be to protect the 

 queen or not, anything that tends to excite them suffi- 

 ciently may lead them to do violence to the queen. So 

 when I find the queen thus balled, I ahvays close the 

 hive immediately, not generally touching it again till 

 the next day, when everything will be found all right. 



MAKING REC'ORDS. »/ 



After the overhauling of a colony is completed, a 

 record thereof must be made. If Alay 10, 1902, should 

 be the date of the visit, and if I should clip the queen at 

 that visit, I would make the entry, "May 10 cl q (01)," 

 which means that I clipped the queen May 10, and that 

 she was a queen reared in 1901. If, later in the season, 

 I should clip a queen reared that same season, the entry 

 would be, "cl q (02)," meaning that the queen was reared 

 in 1902. In either case the year of the birtji of the old 



