Queen Bee Assassination By Honey Bee Kill Squad!
Filed under Bees, Noted, Sticky Acres
FRED SAVE THE QUEEN!
A fellow organic beekeeper, Fred, posted this amazing video on YouTube.
Background for non-beeks: “Balling” is the beekeeping term for “assassinating the Head of State.”
When bees decide to commit regicide and bump off the queen bee for whatever reason, they form the bee version of a firing squad (so everyone has culpable deniability) and form a ball around the queen. They then smother her to death by crowding together.
In this video you can hear that the buzzing of the kill squad is out of tune–this is the noise bees usually make when they are queenless and mad.
The high pitched peeping sound you can hear toward the end of the video is the queen screaming for mercy.
All of this drama, in the palm of Fred’s hand.
Amazing….
4 Comments
That is the most amazing video. Is this often caught on tape? Thank you for posting.
OMG!
Wow – that was awesome! Thanks for the science lesson for the day!
Linda–normally balling takes place inside the hive, so it’s usually not so visible. Also, the fact that Fred does all the detective work in the palm of his bare hand so we can see it is an extra treat!
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[...] Honey Bee Kill Squad by My Roman Apartment – This is a video about with some bees trying to assassinate their queen. It’s quite fascinating and I learned something new. [...]