So, one of my hives absconded. Left in the hive were 2.5 newly drawn frames (they started out foundationless), eggs (so the queen was there 3 days ago), brood of all ages, and about 30 workers along with some nectar.
We are on a canola flow right now and I can not figure out why the hive took off. They were established from a package this spring (late May), requeened about two weeks ago (all looked well with that) and were not bothered by pests (that I could tell). There were 3-3.5 frames of bees, 2 frames of brood and some stored nectar/pollen/honey at last check about 10 days ago. It looks like they waited for the bulk of the brood to hatch and then took off.
Any ideas as to why? I would like to learn if there is something that I missed or did wrong so that I can do more to prevent this in the future.
Thanks
Mike