bees left....

[dimis]

Hi,

I posted earlier about a week ago about worms in my hive. For the history of it you can scroll down to find my post. Well, after the worm cleanup, I put new frames in the all cleaned up hive. I was advised to look for any queen and any queen eggs etc. The frames were a total mess. I had to through away everything. I kept the bees in a temporary box while I was doing the cleaning, and then put them back to their original hive all cleaned up, new frames , new wax foundations.
Even though I am very new to this I did not spot any queen in the 3 way process: Take them out, put then in temporary, put them back.
Right away I started feeding them and in a day and a half they had consumed 6 pounds of syrop (sugar/water). Next morning (day 2 and a half after the cleanup-transfer)they were all gone!!!
Empty hive. If there was not a queen where did they go? I removed the hive from its place.
Lots of them still fly around to the old spot where the hive used to be, around noon time. Whether is chilli at night but costantly 18-20 Celcius daytime. We are preparing for the winter.
What should I do? Just forget them? Can I catch them back? How?
thanks in advance,

Dimis

[Walt McBride]

Dimis, unless you can find where the bees went to, write your experience off to what things can happen sometimes with out an explanable answer. If that was your first and only colony now take the time to read imformation on beekeeping, get equipment prepaired and locate a reliable source in your country and make arangements to purchase three or four pounds of bees with a queen when your season starts next year. Try to locate a beekeeping association or club or an other beekeeper that would menter you if you need some questions resolved. I have been keeping hives for over 30 years and still have some questions that I do not think I will ever get answers to.
Walt

[Joel]

Dimis, it sounds like your hive abscounded. This will happen when some type of environmental pressure, disease, pests, frequent disturbance are common ones, cause the bees to enter the look for a new hive mode. There must have been a queen as otherwise the workers would not have had the drive to move on. You don't say where you are, what kind of worms you had but that combined with the frame change probably was the cause. Everyone will have a hive abscond some time if they keep bees for long enough. I am concerned about your description of worms as it could be either hive beetles or wax moths (larval stage). In either case you need to take some precautions before installing a new hive. Don't give up for the year, there are still bees to be had and swarm season is just around the corner. Let your PD know you will capture swarms and you'll have bees soon enough. Good Luck!