Okay, now Iddee, I had two absconds last year. The first one, earlier in the year. They didn't fly out of the hive and flee, they simply left in an hours time, leaving the queen behind. She just stood there in the bottom of the box all alone. I don't understand what happened here.
Then in the end of summer I noticed one of my bigger hives simply disappeared, just like that! That was my first abscond ever! Queen gone too.
Looked up what causes absconding and the first on the list is lack of food. Which makes perfect sense because the entire west coast was on fire last year. When there is smoke in the sky the flowers don't produce much nectar, the bees will take off searching for food.
But in Mikeys story, to me, it sounds like the bees tried to swarm but left the queen behind, as if they didn't slim her down for flight, so they went back. But if this is the case, they will slim her down, and surely swarm again.
So my question is: Is there a queen in that box? and if there is, be assured that they will attempt a swarm again.
