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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