"Anyway, I'm thinking it was the addition of lemon oil to the syrup that made the bees abscond.  Won't be doing that again.  Was an expensive lesson."

Thats' weird, because I spray the bees with syrup containing lemongrass and spearmint EO (the HBH knock-off recipe) whenever I add queens, start nucs, etc.  For me at least, it seems to calm them down and get them busy licking up syrup, rather than focusing on whatever else is going on (e.g. bumbling human tearing their home apart).

Guess the effects can be very different, depending on where you are.

Bill
Claremont, NH - where it is now sunny and warming rapidly.

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