september swarm

[rodmaker]

  One of my hives swarmed and i was lucky enough to catch the bees on saturday. I went into the hive they left and there were no bees left. So i broke the hive down and went through it. I found two mites dead on the bottom board and no others in the hive. I had treated this hive earlier in the year. I put the frames under a magnifying glass and saw no signs of mites, there was no white signs of the mites in the brood frames . Why would the bees leave this time of year? This was a second year hive and related to a hive that did the same thing in feb.of this year. the first hive that did this was related to mites from what i learned from Tecumseh.  I saw the mite fecal matter so now i know what to look for but none of that is present in this hive.

[Jen]

Well Rod... I can only say this at this point. I've been hearing of unusual swarming this year. Perry can also account to that. My one hive this spring swarmed and after swarmed 10 times. My friend Sarah Red Laird aka 'Bee Girl' and bee adversary in Ashland Oregon says that there is a lot of complaint of swarming and beeks going in for inspection and finding empty hives.

  There is talk that the bees are trying to re-populate in the world.

   Could your hive been overcrowded?

[riverbee]

rod.....swarmed or absconded, there is a difference, absconding results in nothing left in the hive. ?

[rodmaker]

  They did abscond but i did not know that when i caught them. Found out when i checked the hives looking for where the swarm came from.

[Jen]

This brings up a question... ?  Is there brood and larvae and eggs left behind?

[riverbee]

ok rod, many reasons why bees would totally swarm/abscond......any of your thoughts or ideas as to why?

this is a hard one, swarming is one thing that we all get, absconding from a hive totally is dictated by soooo many possibilities.....

any other ideas as to why?  i know you are asking here, but your mite count or evidence of was not sufficient to drive them out?

[rodmaker]

  Mites where basically non existent .The comb was all less than three years old This was my strongest hive . I pulled honey in June and all appeared okay . Pulled honey three weeks ago and i did not check brood chambers at that time . The only thing i can think of is maybe to many cast swarms. This queen does not look like a new queen so i really am at a loss as to what happened. The brood frames all looked normal and there was pollen in the hive not much honey left only three deep frames.

[riverbee]

rodm, i have no answer for this, just questions  ....how large was the swarm of bees that left this hive?

my only thought is maybe something relative to your drought.....no forage available? this is just a guess.

what did you do with the bees? did you put them back in the same box?  if you did, maybe feed heavily......?

[Jen]

That's a good question Riv... yah no food out there. Out of my four hives, I have only two that were able to manage just one medium each full of food. I haven't checked tho in a 2-3 weeks

[riverbee]

"Pulled honey three weeks ago and i did not check brood chambers at that time......there was pollen in the hive not much honey left only three deep frames. "

just thinking rod, there might be a correlation of taking the honey off and them leaving.  only 3 deep frames of honey left? not enough for them to winter on, and no forage available.  i may be way off, and might be from too many cast swarms, but you said the queen didn't look like a new queen.

[rodmaker]

  We still have a flow going on right now . Bees are coming and going with purpose . I usually make my last pull around the end of august and they will build up just fine before winter. Here the bees will fly all winter due to temp only have about a two week period and then they are out and going again. I will feed if i have to at the end of sept to middle of oct. If it was a issue with forage i don't think they would have stayed in a new hive just twenty feet away Maybe it was just time for a new home . I am at a loss to explain it and am listening to all possible explanations.