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My bees swarmed right after installation

This is most likely to happen when you install a package of bees in a brand new, never-been-used hive. I’ve heard people say it’s the smell of new lumber they don’t like, or it’s the glue in plywood, or it’s the odor of paint. But it may just be that the bees are not in love with the place, and they would rather live elsewhere. Technically, they have not swarmed; they have absconded. Swarming is colony reproduction that produces two colonies from one. Absconding means all the bees left in one cohesive group. In other words, it is still only one colony—not two—and it lives somewhere inconvenient for the beekeeper.

The problem is easy to prevent. The package of bees will not leave without their queen, so if the queen can’t leave, the bees will stay and start to build comb. Once the comb-building process has begun—and the hive begins to smell like home—you can release the queen and relax.

To keep the queen home, you can leave her in the queen cage until comb-building is underway or you can use a swarm guard, which is like a queen excluder, across the entrance. Beekeeper Jim Withers pointed out that in Langstroth hives you can also use a regular queen excluder placed just under the lowest brood box. In any case, the queen should be released from her cage as soon as comb appears. Queen excluders need to be removed before any drones emerge.

I had several packages abscond at the prison where I taught beekeeping, all from top-bar hives. Since then, I always sequester the queen if the wood is new, or I install several bars of used brood comb—the darker the better—to start them off. This is the same type of comb you would use in a bait hive. Even though it looks disgusting, it is full of odors the bees find irresistible. Go figure.

But what about those old combs? Shouldn’t old black combs—which may contain pesticide build-up or disease—be rotated out of the hive? Absolutely. I handle this by using combs that are almost ready to retire, but not quite. For example, if you retire combs after four years, use three-year-old combs for baiting a hive or starting a colony on new wood. The following year you can rotate them out of the hives.

Do honey bees leave the hive in the winter and return in the spring? Ours are gone now.

This question makes me sad. No, honey bees do not leave and return. If they are gone, they’re not coming back. They may have absconded, meaning they abandoned their hive and selected another location to live, or the colony may have died out for one reason or another. I can’t say much more without knowing the details. Depending on where you live, it is remotely possible that a different colony might move into your old equipment, but it’s not something you should count on. If you want to continue keeping bees, you need to acquire a new colony.

Absconding or CCD?

How can you tell if your bees absconded or disappeared due to colony collapse disorder? Many similarities exist between the two and it can be confusing.

When a colony absconds, the entire colony leaves the hive including all the workers and the queen. The bees usually take everything with them, including the stored honey, and leave only the empty combs behind.

Bees that abscond usually leave for one or more of the following reasons:

  • Lack of food
  • Lack of water
  • Overheating
  • Loud and continuous noise
  • Fires that cause prolonged exposure to smoke
  • Bad odors in the hive
  • Frequent disturbance
  • Invasion by predators such as yellowjackets, small hive beetles, Argentine ants, or wax moths
  • Parasites such as Varroa mites
  • Diseases such as American foul brood

Colony collapse disorder also results in a hive without bees, but the circumstances are different. Although we still don’t know the specific cause of CCD, a collapsed colony has specific characteristics.

  • Before a colony collapses it may contain much more brood than the small workforce can care for. In addition, the adult bees that are present are reluctant to take feed.
  • Once the colony disappears, it may leave behind both capped brood and the queen. The hive may be full of stored food as well—honey, uncured nectar, and pollen are all abandoned.
  • Then, after the collapse, a long period of time may elapse before the food stores and honeycombs are attacked by hive pests such as wax moths and small hive beetles.

Most of the time, especially in the spring, a new beekeeper is more likely to experience an absconding hive. A package of bees hived in brand new equipment may easily decide it would rather live somewhere else. Absconding also occurs frequently during a nectar dearth when food and water are scarce. In that case, the colony may decide to try its luck elsewhere.

However, when the bees disappear late in the year, when they leave lots of stores behind, when they leave brood behind, or when they seem to disappear without a trace, careful scrutiny is warranted. Yes, your particular bees may have absconded for some compelling reason and left some things behind. On the other hand, you should at least check for signs of CCD.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Update on ants

The post titled “Bad-ant ant advice and the ascension of bees” coaxed readers out of the woodwork. Some agreed with me that the ants were not the problem, some thought they were definitely the problem, and others thought there wasn’t enough information. I have to say that I learned a lot from the discussion. As with all beekeeping issues, the ant problem seems to hinge on the local environment: some places have troublesome ants and some don’t.

The reader who posed the original question has shared more information. It turns out I was right about new wood and no starters. He says, “I built a Warré hive . . . of new wood without foundation nor starter strips, just bare top bars.” He goes on to defend his decision to go with Warré, but I don’t consider that a problem. The shape and design of Warré hives is just fine and I have stolen a lot of good ideas from Warré beekeepers.

However, he goes on to describe the ants, “The ants are tiny and black, and I assume they are Argentine ants (I live in California).” Based on reader comments, it seems that California is one of the places where ants can definitely be a problem and Argentine ants can cause bees to flee.

The good news is we haven’t lost the beekeeper. He says, “I am okay with waiting until next year to try again.” He doesn’t want to buy a nuc because it won’t fit in his Warré, which is a good point. He adds, “After reading your posting (and reader comments) I accept that even without ants, my bees may still have left. But I will try and figure out a way of keeping ants out of my next hive.”

So for next year, I recommend the following:

  • Use starter strips or a bead of wax on the top bars (same as in a top-bar hive)
  • Keep the queen caged until the bees begin to build comb
  • In addition, you could place a pheromone lure inside the hive for a few days to give it a good homey smell before dumping the package
  • Use one or more of the reader-suggested ways to control Argentine ants

That’s where we stand at the moment. Besides being a bit wiser about ants, I’m ecstatic about having a new word in my bee vocabulary. But the thought of having to wait a whole year to hear how it all works out is nearly unbearable.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite