Can anyone share their experience with absconding of well established colonies? What causes do you see most commonly? What does the comb look like afterwards? I just lost two well-established colonies in what appears to be a mass absconding. These are kept next to each other in long hives (like those discussed in the thread on alternative designs which reduce lifted weight) with screened bottoms, with a volume equivalent to 3 deeps. The hives were not overcrowded - if translated to Lang terms probably 15 and 20 full frames of bees, respectively. One was from an April swarm, the other an April split, both were queenright when last inspected and had good laying patterns. Stores were adequate, though no surplus was harvested. No history of disease or pest infestation. Hives are in full sun. We had almost two weeks of abnormally high temps (100+ daytime with a peak temp of 105, tying the local all-time record, nighttime in the upper 70s). This was followed by a cool and rainy week, however the local dearth effectively started two weeks early. Last week I noticed some robbing activity on both hives (bees trying to enter but not knowing where the entrances were, tussling at the entrances) and reduced the entrances. Very mild robbing compared to some instances I have seen in the past. Robbing stopped but the following days forager traffic dropped off sharply. Yesterday found both hives to be completely empty. On inspection, hives were both completely empty of stores but there were some differences. The stronger hive had a solid layer of dead bees on the bottom (not enough to account for the whole population) and some ripped comb. No evidence of brood. The weaker hive had very few dead left, no signs of robbing, but did abandon some capped brood. The frame with some brood looked extremely strange - dead pupae were standing straight out from inside their cells as though they had burst through the capping - the capping had not been removed. Some adults appeared to have hatched after the colony absconded, and these looked very sick, abdomens pale, soft, and undersized, having trouble walking. Can anyone comment on likely causes? Are the strange pupae and adults relevant? Does it seem more likely that robbing occurred before or after absconding? Thanks for sharing your experience. Catherine *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm