disappearing bees

[Lanier74]

Hey, I have a question regarding a hive where the bees have simply disappeared. This was a very weak hive when I got them about 2 months or so ago. There were no brood and no food or pollen stores. I was not even sure if there was a queen or not. I have been working with them and feeding them to help them build up for the winter. The last time I opened the hive about a week or so ago when we had some 65 degree days I found some new capped brood to let me know for the first time that the queen was still alive and laying as well as some food and pollen stores they had been bringing in. The hive was still very small and only had about a fist size ball of bees though. This week is forcasted 65-70 degree days so I thought I would check them again and feed them heavy this week but when I opened the hive I only found 3-4 bees. Upon checking, they left all the capped brood which were about 3/4 developed and of course are now dead. The larva seem to have been developing normally but appear to have died from no food or the cold nights of 25 we had the last couple nights. What little food and pollen they had was also left and they appear to have simply left. There were no dead bees in the hive and it was vey clean. I have another very strong hive about 8-10 feet from this week one and those bees are still working very hard this week.
It is possible that too much human interaction drove them out of me trying to keep them fed this winter, although I only opened the hive about once a week or so, or could they have just all swarmed during the odd warm days we had, or could the queen have died and the bees moved next door to my other strong hive where there is plenty of food.
Any help on this is appreciated because I certainly do not want to loose my other hive.

[D Coates]

It sounds like the hive was simply too small to generate enough warmth and knew it. They could have absconded and gone... who knows where... I'd chalk this one up to experience. I don't think you did anything wrong.

As I've read hear before "take you losses in the Fall". Meaning combine weak hives with strong hives (assuming there's no known illness) to at least help the stronger hive make it through the winter with a larger population. Assuming the combined hive survived the winter, split the combined hive in the spring. You've got your two hives back. With that being said, from your description I'd say a hive that small really didn't have much of a chance no matter what you did.

[iddee]

I would guess they are in the large hive. When they know they aren't going to make it, they abscond. If they had a queen, they most likely left and died hanging on a tree branch. If they were queenless, they likely took up with the large hive.

[Lanier74]

Thanks for the information. Guess I will chalk this one up to learning but I really did not expect this hive to make it through the winter anyway with so few bees and food. Course as I am sure iddee knows with this weather this week my bees have gotten extremely active and my strong hive is looking great. My hopes now are to try to keep them from swarming this spring. They have two hive bodies, the bottom one full and the top one as 5 full frames of honey stores and one partially full and then 3 more frames of undrawn foundation so hopefully that will keep them busy enough this spring to keep them around.
I guess with the loss of these I will be looking for another nuc or package this spring.