Subject: Winter losses

From: [email-masked]
Date: 1 May 1995 15:34:12 GMT

I lost a hive last fall to wax months, and my second hive this
spring for reasons unknown.  On a warm  February day I went out 
for a quick look see, and all was well.  Two weeks later the entire
hive was gone. There  was  honey in the hive, and no signs of starvation
or an excessive number of dead bees.  Its like the entire hive left.
Is this normal swarm behavior?  I thought in swarming, some wwould 
stay behind.  This is very disappointing.  This hive won me first
prize in our county fair last year.  I though I knew what I was
doing, but obviously not.  I'm going to try one more time.

Steve Rogers

---

From: [email-masked] (Ronald Healy)
Date: 2 May 1995 05:09:47 GMT

>doing, but obviously not.  I'm going to try one more time.

Hi Steve.  What you describe is so disappointing.  From my reading and
what others tell me it sounds as if you may have had a mite problem.
The key is that the hive has adequate stores, etc. but almost no bees, dead
or otherwise.  I have no experience with this as here on Vancouver Island 
on the British Columbia coast we have no mites, (yet!?!).  It will be 
interesting to see what others say.

Ron

---

From: [email-masked] (Aaron Morris)
Date: Tue, 02 May 95 08:14:16 EDT

In article <[email-masked]>
[email-masked] writes:
 
>Is this normal swarm behavior?  I thought in swarming, some would
>stay behind....
 
What you describe is not normal swarm behavior, and I don't think
February/March is 'normal' swarm season in Oklahoma anyway.  Absconding
is not uncommon for packaged bees, although thankfully it's not a common
occurence either and certainly not common for established hives.  Bees
infested with varroa have been known to abscond, although I cannot
guess how such action would relieve the hive from the mites.  I would
think the bees would bring the mites with them, but irregardless, they
abscond anyway.  Perhaps this is what happened with your bees.  Have
mites been a problem in your area?  Keep a watchful eye this season!
 
Aaron Morris

---

From: [email-masked] (Don Bowen)
Date: 5 May 1995 14:45:16 GMT

>mites been a problem in your area?  Keep a watchful eye this season!

	What is the current thinking obout reducing mite losses?  I only
have a couple of hives so I cannot afford any loss and can afford to spend 
extra time doing whatever is necessary.

---

From: [email-masked] (Aaron Morris)
Date: Tue, 09 May 95 08:00:39 EDT

In article <[email-masked]>
[email-masked] writes:
 
>> >                                                        ...  Absconding
>> >occurence either and certainly not common for established hives.
>>
>What is absconding?
>
>From  Webster's: "to hide away: to depart secretly and hide onself".
As it relates to beekeeping, it is the act of just leaving a hive for
another location.  It differs from swarming in that ALL the bees leave
for another site.  No bees remain behind.  This sometimes (rarely)
happens with packaged bees, is more common with captured swarms (a frame
of capped brood virtually assures that a swarm will stay put), and is
much more common with Africanized bees (a defense mechanism in their
native environment and an aid for their rapid migration from Brazil
throughout South and Central America and the southwest United States
(Texas, Arizona, New Mexico(?) and Southern California)).
 
Aaron Morris - thinking of absconding from work!

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 8 May 1995 13:00:55 GMT

What is absconding?

Steve Rogers

---

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 14:01:00 GMT

<>What is absconding?

Hello!

That's a beekeeper catch all term that cover just about any reason a
otherwise healthy hive leaves a bee box for the tree's other then
swarming. When a hive abscond's normally no bee's remain in the hive.

Such as the ant's were bothering my bee's and they absconded. Or some
say Tex-Mex bee's abscond when they run short of honey, which may or
may not be true, depending on who you talk too. Absconding is rare in
healthy hive's, and hive's that are sick normally slowly die and/or
drift away. The problem comes when the beekeeper does not visually
see the last day's of his hive, which can happen at an accelerated
rate toward the end and finds all the bee's gone. He tend's to say they
absconded, especially if there are no visual sign's of a problem or
disease.

Another common cause of absconding is after a prime swarm or two
leave's a weakened hive with a late virgin queen. Some time all the
bee's will leave with the virgin on one of her flights and not return
to the hive.
                   Hope that helps, ttul Andy-