George, any chance your hives became africanized? You mention one
"survivor" was a strong "hot" hive. I don't know where in Florida you
are or whether africanized honey bees had arrived in your area by the
time in question, but absconding is a trait of africanized bees. One
might even assume africanized bees arrived in Florida before they were
generally acknowledged to be a problem there. Did you have marked queens
and did you keep track of them?
George-
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George Fergusson
Whitefield Maine
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