This is to solicit comments about an absconding event.  I started a new
hive in mid-August in my back yard in this suburb of Seattle.  A beekeeper
friend had removed a feral colony from a barn and hived the bees, with
their queen, in a deep on frames which had been recently extracted.  I
supplied them with sugar syrup fed from a jar through a hole in the inner
cover.  A pollen/sugar paste was spread on several of the top bars.  Two
Apistan strips were inserted.  After about a week and a half I requeened
with a Yugoslavian Carniolan queen.  After two days in a Thurber Long
cage, I released her and she seemed to be well accepted as she entered the
space between the frames.
 
Since the date was late and the colony only about a couple of pounds in
size, I did not reinspect the hive to avoid disturbing the new queen.  A
friend was going to supply enough honey in another super to provide for
overwintering food, but I maintained a supply of syrup in addition.  The
syrup was taken continuously but slowly.  There were some crawlers in
front of the hive the first couple of days after relocating the hive to my
yard but none thereafter.  The entrance space was restricted to about 1
inch in length.
 
About the third week of September I lifted the syrup jar to refill it and
saw no bees.  The hive was empty.  Perhaps a couple of dozen dead workers
were on the bottom board, but no live bees and no queen.  Why would the
entire hive abscond?  There is plenty of pollen coming into the hives -
there always is in this area - but almost no nectar.  Spring is the time
bees swarm in this area, not in the fall.  And this was no swarm, besides.
 
Sid and Dan
[log in to unmask]