What's the longest time after grafting you've waited for a queen to emerge ?

[busybeephilip]

I suppose as well as clustering and biting a bit of pulling occurs as well. You will see worker abdomens turned as if they are stinging but if you look closely they are not doing this as some workers can be on the outside of the ball and apparently giving the illusion that they are stinging the workers within the ball if you get my drift.

[SDM]

Yes, it's balling which causes the damage. I have rescued queens from being balled loads of times but they very often have some defect which you notice later on, usually a dodgy leg. Apparently this is from taking a sting in a leg joint.

I saw this today, I opened a nuc with a top feeder on it to see the queen being chased around the feeder by a wasp. I lifted the cover and let the wasp out and the queen went back down into the nuc. When I opened up the nuc about an hour later, she was getting balled. Could she have been saved after a wasp sting ?

[Jon]

Sometimes workers ball a queen to protect her. It is not always an aggressive act.
I have had queens which get balled every time the colony is opened.

[SDM]

I'd not seen it before with this colony and she was definitely in a scrap with a big wasp earlier.
it might be worth mentioning that this was the nuc that was down to a frame of bees after the robbing. They've had 2 frames of brood donated since then and seemed to have bounced back(moving them to a new apiary with just one other nuc helped on the competition front)
Anyway I decided to go back and check just now and I could hear the commotion outside , inside she was still getting balled. When I freed her of workers she flew( into the dark) but came back a few mins later. She seems fine, but I've caged her for the moment back in the nuc and I guess I'll leave her there for 24-48hrs then see how it goes. Despite the woes, she had been doing really well and as a swarm queen I'd hate not to keep her lineage ( but can't let them requeen at this stage of the season). At least I'm going to have some spare queens by the looks of things, so I won't loose the colony.