Asking a Question for a Friend, Absconded?

[DayValleyDahlias]

Whilst attending a dahlia society meeting, one of my co-members pulled me aside to tell me that her bees vanished.  She said that when she checked the hive she saw that some of the brood had chewed though but died after the process...they were just there with their lil heads sticking out.  She said there was plenty of honey present.  I asked her about mites and all, she didn't have much of an explanation.

She has been leeping bees for some years, and admitted that it had been at least 2 months since she had checked the hive, oh and she did see some swarm cells...She wonders what happened...speculations???

Many Thanks

[topbarslo]

Same thing happened to me couple of months ago. We were speculating on too much ventilation (TBH with screened bottom), heat, intruders and in my case lack of food.
Bees are wild animals so I guess we cannot "make" them stay  :-P

[BMAC]

Apis mellifera scutellata?

Maybe????

Don't they had a tendency to abscond for no particular reason....

[Scadsobees]

If there was honey left, then it sounds almost like CCD or disease related (nosema cerana, israeli virus).  Depending on how long the hive was weakened, I would have expected moths and hive beetles to take over.  Were there any/many of these?  Did she say how much brood was left?  If there was a substantial amount of brood, and no moths/beetles, then I would blame it on CCD.

Lack of honey can trigger absconding, but that doesn't sound like the case.

Other than that there really isn't enough details to say for sure what it could have been, other than us taking a bunch of guesses.

Rick

[Cindi]

Sharon, I don't know, but the first thing that came to my mind was:  how many queen cells, what did the queen cells look like?  Meaning, mostly were the tops opened like a queen had emerged, like the lid of a can cut off, or were the cells punctured on the side, wherein an emerged queen had killed the queen(s) within. 

If there was a swarm that issued, the remaining bees would have torn down the queen cells.  I believe that this is what they do eventually.  Maybe this hive was so weakened by a swarm issuance the remaining bees died.  Maybe they did abscond.  Who knows.  If it had been two months since she checked the hives, anything could have happened in that time duration.  I think that she should have checked her bees a little more frequently.  Have a wonderful and great day, Cindi

[DayValleyDahlias]

Yes, thank you all...I will tell her what you have all speculated..she might want to check her bees more often for impending problems... :-*