Hi Dan

We try to select against the absconding tendency in producing
pedigree scuts.

If you take wild scuts as a baseline, they can also be managed to
reduce or minimise absconding. Absconding is normally triggered by
continual extreme cold or heat, an end to a flow (especially a
mono-flow, for example, sunflowers), or a bad outbreak of some pest
or disease, such as chalkbrood.

In other words, you need to place hives to neutralise temperature
extremes, and move hives at the right time. I've often heard it said that
in beekeeping, timing is everything. Also, you need to use good solid
wooden Langstroth hives, regulate the entrance width to the hive, and
consciously leave a honey super with the bees when you sense
conditions may toughen up. Most of this is standard beekeeping
practice?

It's interesting that when wild scuts abscond, they take the easiest
route. This past winter I saw smaller colonies in an apiary simply join
other, bigger colonies. These giant colonies would then have
sufficient bees to generate lots of heat, and field plenty of foragers,
when flying was possible. The absconding colonies left everything
behind - brood, pollen and honey. And, of course, queens were
sacrificed.  I guess the outcome of this process would be that when
conditions improved, such giant colonies could produce swarm after
swarm, giving more overall bees than if the smaller colonies had not
absconded in the first place. This is a kind of “sum of the parts” logic.

Barry in Kyalami