Absconding
A whole colony abandoning its nest and leaving, as distinct from swarming, which divides a colony in two.
Definition
In absconding the entire colony departs — queen, workers, brood abandoned — usually in response to disturbance, starvation, heavy parasite load, overheating or persistent robbing. Nothing is left behind to raise a new queen. It is far more common in tropically adapted honey bees, including African subspecies and Africanized populations in the Americas, where a mobile strategy suits a landscape whose forage moves.
Where the word gets used loosely
Regularly reported as swarming, which it is not. A swarm is reproduction and leaves a functioning colony behind with brood and queen cells; absconding is retreat and leaves an empty box. The distinction matters because the causes and the beekeeper's response are entirely different.
See also
Other beekeeping terms
Sources
Sources
- The Biology of the Honey Bee — Harvard University Press (1987) · Textbook
- The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild — Princeton University Press (2019) · Monograph
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