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Author Topic: Bees bugged out  (Read 1279 times)

Offline RC

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Bees bugged out
« on: September 29, 2013, 09:27:19 pm »
Alright, help me out here. I got home yesterday from a week away. I gave all my hives a quick look over last Sunday before I left and everything seemed fine. I walked down to glance at them yesterday evening and noticed one hive with no bees at the entrance. I opened it up this morning and found zero bees. They even left some honey and brood behind. The hive looks like they just moved out. No queen cells, no sign of pests. Nothing there but a few ants.
This has got me scratching my head. Anybody got any ideas?

Offline BlueBee

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Re: Bees bugged out
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2013, 11:04:28 pm »
Luckily never had the bees move out so suddenly so I don’t know.  Varroa will drive them out over time, but I’ve never had them go from good to gone in a week.

Just to be sure it wasn’t varroa, I would uncap the brood they left behind and see if they are loaded with mites, or not.

Offline sweet bee

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Re: Bees bugged out
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2013, 11:18:35 pm »
One of mine did the same thing today except I caught them before they got too far. The number of bees were way down, very little brood (capped and uncapped) Had honey stores,  a few small hive beetle but didn't see any larval stage. They just left.   I was able to put them in a 5 frame nuc with frames of honey and pollen, so I'll just wait and see what happens. I started the mite treatment yesterday but just peeked in, not a thorough inspection. I noticed the lack of brood but thought it might be a queen issue.  :?

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Offline RC

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Re: Bees bugged out
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2013, 02:14:23 pm »
Good point, BlueBee. I'll uncap the brood today, if the ants have left any.
This really confounds me, this was a swarm that I caught early in the year and had built up like crazy. I'd even robbed a few frames of brood from them mid-summer to help out a weak hive. As of last Sunday, they were as strong or stronger than any hive I have. They went from booming to busted in a week.