u/Such_Average7494

Link to original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/s/eLKzum94XG

I went to open my hive today to add a pollen patty and realized the bees were gone. I’m still not sure why they absconded. It seemed like every time I checked on the bees their population looked smaller. There wasn’t any robber bees either so they must’ve recently absconded. They had capped honey, nectar, and pollen as well as eggs, brood, and larvae present in the comb. There were no dead bees on the bottom. There was some evidence of wax moths and some ants so maybe they were too stressed? Also the four pictures I attached were the only frames they built/ were using (it was a very small swarm). Maybe the 8 frame deep was too big for them to control the temperature?

If anyone has any ideas why they might’ve absconded I’d love to know so I can avoid this happening again in the future. Pretty sad they left.

Location: Oregon

Location: Oregon

A small swarm moved into my 8-frame deep beehive about 1.5 months ago. I hadn’t been beekeeping for a few years so when the swarm moved in they were building on some empty space in the middle with no frames (Photo 1). So I cut the comb off about 2 days after they moved in and put in new frames. 2 weeks later they had rebuilt the comb on one main frame and there was lots of eggs but there was noticeably less bees (photo 2). 2 weeks later I checked again and they hadn’t build any additional comb but there was lots of capped brood (photo 3) so I figured the population was about to increase. Today, 2.5 weeks later, I just checked again and the comb has still not expanded and now there are many empty cells, less bees, and only a few with eggs/ larvae (photo 4+5). I also took photos of the surrounding 2 frames (one of which was an old filled frame) they’ve built a bit on in photos 6+7. I’m not sure if this is varroa (too little bees to test), not enough pollen, not enough bees, too much space for them, or a failing queen? Not sure what to do.

More info: The entrance is very reduced to about 1.5 inches and they are being fed 1:1 sugar water through a mason jar on the inside of the hive. There is also never much activity coming in and out of the hive which I figured is because they are a small colony.