I must be misreading this discussion. Swarming/absconding at unusual times
of year - we've seen that with CCD where bees did this in California in
December.
However, there also seems to be some confusion on the List about what is
absconding versus swarming, which surprised me. So much so, I double checked my
reference books to be sure I wasn't wrong in my assumptions about the terms.
Absconding and swarming are not the same, the distinction is clear. Roger
Morse and Ted Hooper refer to swarms as daughter portions of a dividing
colony, which is the definition I learned years ago.
By all definitions, absconding is abandonment of the nest. Everybody goes.
The bees don't produce queen cells, or if any are present, these will
usually be empty.
In the broadest definition, you could say that the absconding bees form a
swarm that leaves. The swarm itself is composed of a queen, workers, and
drones (depending on time of year).
Typically, the word swarming is used to describe the division of a colony,
the reproductive process. In this case, the old queen and a relatively large
part of the work force leaves to establish a new colony, leaving bees,
resources, and one or more queen cells with developing queens (although I've
occasionally seen a virgin queen that emerges as or just before the swarm).
Some colonies that divide produce a primary swarm, then one or more after
swarms. So, you might argue, as Morse and Hooper note, that there can be
intermediates between swarming for reproduction, queen replacement without
swarming, and absconding. Absconding bees form a swarm, but its not a daughter
portion, but rather the original colony.
And obviously, technically, the term daughter portion is incorrect, since
its usually the parent queen that leaves, although some secondary swarms may
have daughter queens.
Overall, I don't have any problem distinguishing absconding from swarming,
if you inspect the beehive. If every bee goes with no option for sustaining
the original colony - no bees, no queen, then by my definition, that's
absconding. If one or more replacement queens are left in the parent colony with a
work force of bees, that's what I term a swarming event.
The mass of bees flying past is a swarm. It could be a daughter swarm or
the original colony population.
One caveat - in areas with high pollution or heat stress, we have seen bees
abscond. Later, we found a queenless cluster of worker bees in the box.
Apparently, these bees were out foraging when the colony absconded, came home to
an empty box.
Jerry
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