Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/200

158 BALLING THE QUEEN

"Balling" in the hive is an indignity that may well have suggested to other societies the method of black-balling unwelcome seekers after honours. The bees ball an unwelcome queen by gathering around her in a compact mass, remaining there until the unfortunate usurper is smothered or starved, or both. As if to live up to their mathematical reputation, this ball is quite spherical because each bee is an animated atom of centripetal force scrambling and pushing toward the centre. This method of smothering royalty is regarded as an evidence of the worker's reluctance to sting a fertile queen. But observations are recorded which state that the bees on the outside of the ball seem fiercely trying to sting, and that the individuals nearest the queen ofttimes share her fate because of this venomous attitude of their sisters. Whether this use of the sting by the outsiders is for the purpose of fighting their way toward the centre, or whether they are mad with a desire to kill the queen, is by no means a settled question. However, if they were bent upon stinging her to death, she would scarcely be alive after having been balled for some time; while it is a matter of common experience that by breaking up the ball and driving off the murderers, the queen may be saved. Sometimes the bees will ball a queen for a time, then voluntarily release her and accept her.

There are two ways generally followed for