Factors leading Apidea to abscond?

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Could the experts please share the benefit of the circumstances in which Apideas abscond? I have a dilemma; QC emerged early yesterday or the day before and I am away from Tuesday week, E+10, maybe 9. Do I leave them with or without a QE?

This summer, I have had queens mated very fast; egg to egg in 23 days in one case, and the forecast is good. I also had my first Apidea attempt abscond. So my prior is to leave a QE. But if they do not abscond as temperatures fall, autumn approaches etc obviously I will not.

So, what factors drive Apidea absconding?

Thanks

 

[For want of a better word]

Seems to be no rhyme or reason!
We have tried locking in for 5 days in the cool and dark..... 3 days in cool and dark..
Mixing bees from three different apiaries.
Feeding with liquid feed
Feeding with Fondant
Feeding with Candipol

Using Apidea or Swibines or Keilers....

As for qe on or off..........
Seems to make little difference!

Even tried different methods of introducing virgin... new hatched from colony to incubator hatched to placing mature q cell into mating nuc

Weather and bee type seems to be a factor

Even experimented with apidea density and proximity and even height from ground
,,, experimented with methods of collecting... no spray.. sugar spray... rosemary / mint/ Vimto additives.

Seems to make no difference... some abscond... some just want to be with their neighbors whatever!!!

However we have noticed a slightly better uptake with 3 framed nuc boxes with brood.. virgin queens introduced via a Butler cage with WHITE marshmallow.... they do not seem to like pink!

Sorry little help there... other than we have not found a solution.

Mytten da

 

[Sean.]

It might be wasps at this time of the year. I've had a lot of trouble with them this year for some reason. Killed off a few Apideas

 

[itma]

I think it is pretty unlikely that a colony would abscond from an Apidea during the second or third week after Q emergence - which I understand to be the specific concern here.
During that time it would be a rather bad idea to close the entrance QX - you could be preventing mating!

Sometime just before you go, open up and replenish the feed compartment with fondant (and give it a spray of water too). That'll make sure that, whatever the weather, they can't starve while you are away.
/// You can just bend up the cover, bending it from above the internal QX, so that you can access the feeder with minimal 'help' from the bees.
Make any such access either early (before 1000) or late (after 1700) and you won't upset a mating flight.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Great call on the specific timing, @itma : thank you; my earlier abscondment was after that point. No QE it is. Thanks all.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Sometime just before you go, open up and replenish the feed compartment with fondant (and give it a spray of water too). That'll make sure that, whatever the weather, they can't starve while you are away.

I did; they did, anyway given the appalling weather while I have been gone. Distressing and annoying but a learning experience.

 

[user 6228]

ever considered that they may want 40 litres of space.
This might seem riduclous but

1. in a tree at the top it will be very narrow and insulating.
2. Seeley found the the desire for 40 litres was independant of colony size

try putting the apidea so the box entrance is connected to a vertical 1m length of 110mm waste pipe. This should give them the impression of nest space.

worth a try

 

[Quis Custodiet]

The suggestion is quite intriguing; using a length of 4" Wavin to create the illusion of space - perhaps it could be incorporated into a support. Something to examine for next season.
In passing, may one say that here, the incidence of mini nucs absconding has been vastly reduced by inserting the Apideas into a tall unclipped hedge running east to west i.e. north facing. No sun whatever gets on the boxes, other areas with less intense shade were not as satisfactory.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Thanks, good suggestions but to be clear they starved, not absconded.