>
>
> On the other hand, at the late stage of a varroa/virus collapse, the colony
> generally rapidly depopulates rapidly by drifting or altruistic self
> removal, generally leaving behind a little scattered sealed brood and
> plenty of honey. This can happen in as little as a week--giving the
> appearance of overnight disappearance.
In your experience, when this occurs, what happens to the queen?
I would suspect the bee population would continue to dwindle down until
there are only about a pound of bees left, and then the remaining bees and
queen would leave the hive. I would consider that absconding, but that's
just me.
I've seen several hives abscond within the past few years, and I'm based in
the Piedmont region of NC. Sometimes they leave a handful of brood cells
behind, which usually tells me it's varroa related. Sometimes they cease
broodrearing in advance. We typically have a nectar dearth from early July
through mid September. With the lack of resources, you often can't have
more than 6-8 colonies in a yard. If the colony numbers are too high, you
have pressure from varroa (always), and little food, you can get some
robbing issues. Once I get some robbing issues, hives start absconding
after that. I can't blame them really, as too little food, parasites, too
much competition, and then thievery is going on, I'd probably try to move
too.
The real trick is trying to fix it. Staying on top of varroa is a constant
battle (as always). Having only 6 hives to a yard becomes very labor
intensive and difficult to manage, so I always have the need to push the
upper end of the envelope there. When the nectar dearth hits, I need to
feed some weak 1:1 to keep them going. Too little, and I've done nothing.
Too much and I may start a robbing issue.
At least, these are my experiences with absconding. Not saying I'm right,
or doing things right. Just my thoughts, experiences and observations.
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