What a time to vacate hive !

[Dibbler]

Came back from Spain late Sunday evening. Monday very busy day as sewage pumping station is being renewed. ( Enough said about that )
Noon noticed small swarm in front garden. Hmm no qc in any of my hives. I checked the day before holiday.
I thought I will try and collect them later. Went out 4.30pm and they had gone. That was quick I thought.
Quick visit to 2 of my hives that didn't have much activity.
1 hive no bees in at all. Another hmm.
Opened and inspected. No signs of anything untoward.
Brood box 8 frames all drawn with pollen and capped brood. 2 frames drawn out. No queen cells. No sign of anything that shouldn't be there except 1 ant.
Super 6 full frames of honey. 5 fully capped. Again nothing that shouldn't be there.
I will take this whole hive into shed today and take another look.
This colony I got when asked to remove a swarm from a strawberry tree. It was small but has grown quite well considering I got them in late August. They had been there a while as quite a bit of comb in the tree.
Quite odd as I've never had absconders before.

 

[Antipodes]

Came back from Spain late Sunday evening. Monday very busy day as sewage pumping station is being renewed. ( Enough said about that )
Noon noticed small swarm in front garden. Hmm no qc in any of my hives. I checked the day before holiday.
I thought I will try and collect them later. Went out 4.30pm and they had gone. That was quick I thought.
Quick visit to 2 of my hives that didn't have much activity.
1 hive no bees in at all. Another hmm.
Opened and inspected. No signs of anything untoward.
Brood box 8 frames all drawn with pollen and capped brood. 2 frames drawn out. No queen cells. No sign of anything that shouldn't be there except 1 ant.
Super 6 full frames of honey. 5 fully capped. Again nothing that shouldn't be there.
I will take this whole hive into shed today and take another look.
This colony I got when asked to remove a swarm from a strawberry tree. It was small but has grown quite well considering I got them in late August. They had been there a while as quite a bit of comb in the tree.
Quite odd as I've never had absconders before.

What did you find on inspection of the second of the hives that didn't have much activity?

 

[Dibbler]

What did you find on inspection of the second of the hives that didn't have much activity?

They seemed to be fine. Lots of activity in the brood box. Lots of capped brood. Queen laying and she looked fine. A lot of bees in the super. I waited and watched and quite a few flying in and out but it is my 2nd smallest colony. The ones that absconded were my smallest. I've looked in all the trees and bushes and no sign. They have never been as active as my other hives.

 

[Antipodes]

They seemed to be fine. Lots of activity in the brood box. Lots of capped brood. Queen laying and she looked fine. A lot of bees in the super. I waited and watched and quite a few flying in and out but it is my 2nd smallest colony. The ones that absconded were my smallest. I've looked in all the trees and bushes and no sign. They have never been as active as my other hives.

I have had absconding colonies too, but there has been a "trigger". It will be interesting to hear back about what you find after your more detailed inspection....an excellent idea.
https://bee2bee.com.au/swarming-vs-absconding-what-do-we-need-to-know/#:~:text=Absconding is when all of,wrong in an established hive.

 

[Dibbler]

I have had absconding colonies too, but there has been a "trigger". It will be interesting to hear back about what you find after your more detailed inspection....an excellent idea.
https://bee2bee.com.au/swarming-vs-absconding-what-do-we-need-to-know/#:~:text=Absconding is when all of,wrong in an established hive.

Detailed inspection of absconding hive.
The only thing I found was a weird looking large spider. Huge bulbous body short legs with a very intricate Web all down one corner of brood box.
The laying pattern in box is good. No shotgun laying.
2 frames beautifully drawn out all ready for queen to lay in.
So I'm scratching my head as to why they went.
I wasn't here for the 10 days before Monday, so I don't know if there had been a disturbance.
I've put the brood box in a separate part of garden. Sort of a quarantine. There is a piece of land 7 miles away that I can use.
I'm lucky to have quite a bit of land.
I'm going to extract the 5 capped frames.
I will keep the uncapped frame as food for my other hives if needed.
Any ideas ?
Oh I got rid of the spider and all the Web. Scrubbed the whole box and put all brood box frames in a new brood box.

 

[Antipodes]

Detailed inspection of absconding hive.
The only thing I found was a weird looking large spider. Huge bulbous body short legs with a very intricate Web all down one corner of brood box.
The laying pattern in box is good. No shotgun laying.
2 frames beautifully drawn out all ready for queen to lay in.
So I'm scratching my head as to why they went.
I wasn't here for the 10 days before Monday, so I don't know if there had been a disturbance.
I've put the brood box in a separate part of garden. Sort of a quarantine. There is a piece of land 7 miles away that I can use.
I'm lucky to have quite a bit of land.
I'm going to extract the 5 capped frames.
I will keep the uncapped frame as food for my other hives if needed.
Any ideas ?
Oh I got rid of the spider and all the Web. Scrubbed the whole box and put all brood box frames in a new brood box.

I've seen spider/s in a bee hive before. The box was too big for the colony, and they couldn't deal with it, but it didn't kill them or cause them to fly away.
When did the nectar come in?

 

[Roger.Wilco]

I've seen spider/s in a bee hive before. The box was too big for the colony,

During an inspection last weekend - slugs were observed snuggled on the lower parts of the brood frames. The NUC is packed with bees and they just walked past unfazed. Evicting the slugs took a bit of effort - they were well embedded and were not going to let-go. Mentioned this to another association member and he also confirmed slugs in his hives.

 

[Antipodes]

During an inspection last weekend - slugs were observed snuggled on the lower parts of the brood frames. The NUC is packed with bees and they just walked past unfazed. Evicting the slugs took a bit of effort - they were well embedded and were not going to let-go. Mentioned this to another association member and he also confirmed slugs in his hives.

Yes, slugs seem to be tolerated to some extent.
I've heard that in Queensland, a cane toad can get in the entrance of a hive where it feasts on incoming bees. Over time, the toad becomes larger than the entrance and so is trapped inside. When the beekeeper opens the hive, they are confronted with hardly any bees, but instead, a giant, warty, toxic toad almost bulging out of the top

 

[ericbeaumont]

slugs were observed snuggled on the lower parts of the brood frames

Good year for slugs and they like a warm, humid corner but do no harm. Ants are a different matter if they get into the nest cavity, and I've evicted several this year.

View attachment VID_20240603_162106664~2.mp4

All very well if they stay in the feeder (Park nucs have a hollow wall at either end which ants love) but if they get in the hive, bees rush about in panic.

Change of hive kit and stand will remove the ant pheromone trail; felt sorry for the evicted family.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, slugs seem to be tolerated to some extent.
I've heard that in Queensland, a cane toad can get in the entrance of a hive where it feasts on incoming bees. Over time, the toad becomes larger than the entrance and so is trapped inside. When the beekeeper opens the hive, they are confronted with hardly any bees, but instead, a giant, warty, toxic toad almost bulging out of the top

OMG. The stuff of nightmares

 

[Dibbler]

I've seen spider/s in a bee hive before. The box was too big for the colony, and they couldn't deal with it, but it didn't kill them or cause them to fly away.
When did the nectar come in?

I've looked in my book and it was from the 1st of May onwards. They were filling the frames up quite quickly.
All my other hives are fine.
Maybe it was just one of those times when bees confuse us