# Why did my bees abscond?



## TERRYCROSS (Jan 31, 2017)

I am new to beekeeping. I collected a swarm from a tree in early spring and relocated it to our farm. All seemed to be going well, a couple of weeks ago the weather warmed considerably for several days. The activity at the hive seemed to be heavy during this period. Yesterday i visited the hive to find the bees were all gone.







I only fed the hive after i first started it. I didnt add a box until fall. The new top box was unused when i opened it today. Im sure much more info is needed. I just wanted to start a dialogue with experienced folks. Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks !


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Welcome to Beesource, Terry!

There are a variety of possibilities as to why there are no bees in the hive. What is the condition of the combs in the lower box? Capped stores? Lots of open cells? Other than the caps, are the cells intact, or is there evidence of tunnels through the comb?

If there is no honey in the cells, its _possible_ that what you saw a couple of weeks ago was bees from _another_ colony harvesting what they could from your [dead or severely weakened] hive. 

.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome Terry!


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

TERRYCROSS said:


> Why did my bees abscond?


Your swarm may have been with a virgin queen, and she may have not gotten mated. But you said that all seemed to be going well, so that is likely not the problem. Your swarm may have had an older queen. She may have been superceded, and the new queen may have not gotten mated. You may have rolled your queen during an inspection in the fall, and the emergency queen may have not gotten mated. You may have had an infestation of varroa causing the colony to abscond. The activity that you saw was likely robbing, and you are not likely to have any honey left in the hive.


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Open brood will lock them in, it has worked every time for me. I have had several swarms abscond that did not get brood, since then ever swarm gets open brood, even open drone brood will work. 

It also give them a chance to raise a queen if they need one. 

Shaking bees from a tree, driving them around, shaking them into a home they did not pick may be why they leave. Cold/rainy weather may just have delayed their departure.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I seriously doubt, that in our area, your bees absconded this time of year. You most likely saw robber bees cleaning out any remnants of honey from your hive. We had a bad fall for pollen and not one bit of nectar was stored here. They may have run out of pollen needed to raise young bees during the fall and died out. They could have run out of food and starved out. 

You hived the swarm last spring and had them in one box until fall? I'm guessing a deep hive body. Depending on when in the spring you caught the swarm and whether they had a mated queen with them when you caught them, they could have needed another box less than a month. Putting a box on in the fall, if it was just frames of foundation, did no good. I have not seen comb drawn here in the fall. Especially this past fall when we were in a catastrophic drought.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

From the majority of discussions I have seen that key on the word "abscond", I have the feeling that most experienced beekeepers feel it is often a misused term. Perhaps sometimes even used or suggested by the beekeeper as a way to soften the appearance of their responsibility for the actual cause of the colony collapse. 

The word can have some hidden implications that get danced around.


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