So, one of my hives absconded. Left in the hive were 2.5 newly drawn frames (they started out foundationless), eggs (so the queen was there 3 days ago), brood of all ages, and about 30 workers along with some nectar.
We are on a canola flow right now and I can not figure out why the hive took off. They were established from a package this spring (late May), requeened about two weeks ago (all looked well with that) and were not bothered by pests (that I could tell). There were 3-3.5 frames of bees, 2 frames of brood and some stored nectar/pollen/honey at last check about 10 days ago. It looks like they waited for the bulk of the brood to hatch and then took off.
Any ideas as to why? I would like to learn if there is something that I missed or did wrong so that I can do more to prevent this in the future.
Thanks
Mike
Very strange. No dead bees? Just an empty hive with brood and eggs?
Steve
that is correct - no dead bees. The whole box looked perfectly normal with eggs/brood/some nectar - just no queen or cluster.
No further questions from me. We will have to wait for the more experience experts to respond.
Steve
can you stick the brood in another hive and at least save that? sometimes it happens and there is no reason found. they just take off. i had a hive do that this earlier this year, but they were kind of puny. i requeened them and they left. no reason that i could find.
Kathy,
That is EXACTLY what happened in my case as well. They certainly weren't the strongest hive, but I requeened them about 10 days ago and, now, gone.
I did take the brood and put it in another hive. I don't know if I got to it in time though, although my understanding is that once the brood is capped - it does not require bees covering it anymore. Is this correct?
Mike
see link
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.59.2869
good article - I would classify my event then (according to the article) as a 'disturbance' induced absconding event, as brood was left behind. I hadn't been into them since 2 July (when I checked to see if the queen had been successfully introduced), so I don't think it was my disturbing them - maybe ants?
Oh well - the hive has been baited with Lemongrass oil - maybe I will get lucky and get them replaced!
Why did you re-queen? Not sure I see the reason for that. Every swarm I've lost that way was due to me poking my nose in the hive too often. I now give them at least a month before I open the box.
i'm not sure to whom that question is directed.
QuoteWhy did you re-queen?
in my case, it was not a swarm. it was just a hive that was not doing as well as it should have been. it was requeen or combine. i had a queen and it was early enough for them to build up, so i requeened. a couple of days later, they were gone.
i do not give swarms a month. i give them at least a week, sometimes two, but you need to know that you have a laying queen in there. if you wait a month and you don't have a good queen, you are apt to have a hive drifted away, or laying workers. i do agree that they need to be left alone long enough for them to get a good start on comb building and hopefully for the queen to have done her thing for a few days.