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The latest arrival came in at 2:26 pm today. I heard buzzing in the back of my yard and watched the arrival of what turned out to be about 1 medium frame of bees. I had not seen scouting and it was unclear just where they were heading, so a little Swarm Commander convinced them to come to the front of one of my bait hives. I immediately gave them some sugar water in case they were starving, and I have a small, unmarked queen in a catcher clip in the bait hive. I will release her tomorrow. If they behave, I'll put them in a nuc.

The bees treated my place like a bed and breakfast. I released the queen early this morning and at noon, the bees were clustered off the bottom board of the bait hive. I tried to scoop them back in and they took off and left in the direction they came from yesterday.

The bees are back in town! I don't know if they returned sometime late yesterday afternoon or early this morning, but the small abscond has returned to the bait hive.

I have watched the queen disappear and 4+/- queen cells develop since the arrival of these bees. As of Friday, 1 queen cell had emerged and the rest were being torn down. Just a few minutes ago I saw a small queen on one of the frames. I hope she will be able to get mated, make it safely home, and start laying sometime this week or next. It will be a real struggle to get these bees through winter if they get queenright, but it will be a fun struggle.

Good luck!

The new queen is at work. I checked the nuc this morning and found the queen backed into a cell. When she moved out I examined that cell and a few around it and saw eggs.

Not the easiest image to see, but the queen is laying a mix of worker and drone brood in worker cells. I don't know how long she will last or how far into fall and winter these bees can go, but I will let it play out and see what happens.

I am not seeing any brood in this dwindling colony. I doubt SHB are eating all of the eggs. I think the queen has quit laying. I did see another very small abscond attempt to take up with a healthy nuc this afternoon. I have not seen a queen among the very few bees arriving and the bees in the nuc are having none of it. These arrivals will not last long.

Hey Jacobs.....any update on that colony that "abscond/swarm" you were watching?

I haven't seen much activity the last few days. When it warms up enough I'll take a look, but if the broodless situation has continued, it's just a matter of time until the end.

I checked today and found a deadout with a "cluster" of about 30 bees.