Bees often gather in the fall, but no one understands the reason for this phenomenon. A bee family leaves the hive if it is disturbed by something. Causes of concern may be viral diseases, mite activity, death of the queen, pumping out all the honey and a shortage of winter supplies. Bees can fly away, frightened by a loud sound, rodents, or birds. The bee family, having flown away from the hive, dies or moves into another house.
Reasons for bees leaving the hive
Sometimes a bee family flies out of the hive before wintering.Most often this phenomenon occurs in mid-autumn. There are several reasons for the sudden flight of insects from their houses.
Bad honey collection
During the honey-bearing period (late spring - whole summer - early autumn), the main food of worker bees is nectar and pollen. It is this food that allows insects to secrete wax, build honeycombs, and produce honey and royal jelly. The uterus, drinking milk, actively lays eggs. With normal nutrition, all family members perform their functions.
If weather conditions do not allow collecting nectar and pollen, the bee family begins to consume its own honey. However, such food is not acceptable for the active period. The queen, feeding on honey, will reduce the number of eggs she lays or stop laying eggs altogether. Nurse bees without nectar and pollen will secrete less milk to feed the larvae hatching from the eggs. Young bees will grow up weaker and will not live long.
Typically, insects that switch to feeding on honey during the active period die after 90 days. At the beginning of autumn, young bees that can survive the winter do not appear. After all, the queen, feeding on honey, was unable to lay eggs in the summer. Having not accumulated enough honey for wintering and not raising young bees, the bee family suddenly disappears in the fall (flies out of the hive).
Tick activity
A bee colony is often destroyed by the Varroa mite. This parasite actively reproduces throughout the summer, feeding on the hemolymph, the fatty body of insects. A huge number of ticks parasitize adults and pupae. Weakened insects die over time. In summer, the death of bees is little noticeable, since the queen is actively laying eggs, and new individuals appear in place of the dead. However, in the fall, the activity of the parasite can lead to mass death of the bee colony (or flight from the hive).
Typically, beekeepers treat bees against mites after pumping out honey, after the last brood has emerged, and during preparation for wintering. However, it is in the fall that the parasites hide in the intersegmental partitions of the abdomen, from where it is impossible to smoke them out. Too late treatment with acaricidal drugs does not give a positive result. The bee family is sick and flies away from the hive.
Infections and viruses
Diseases leading to autumn migration:
- Deformed wing virus. Affects brood and adult insects. Carried by the Varroa mite. The peak of the disease occurs in autumn. Wingless and individuals with ugly wings and legs appear. Sick insects die en masse.
- Virus of acute and chronic paralysis. Affects larvae and adult insects. Sick individuals lose the ability to fly, they crawl and tremble. When paralysis of the limbs occurs, the insects die. The virus is spread by Varroa mites. The peak of death occurs in autumn.
- Infectious disease melanosis. Affects queens. Leads to the cessation of oviposition, the formation of fecal plugs, and blackening of the ovaries. The causative agent of the disease is a yeast-like fungus. Worker bees throw out a sick queen from the hive. The family stops laying eggs. Left without a queen, the bee family flies from the hive in the fall.
Abuse of sugar syrup
Many beekeepers feed their bees with sugar syrup in September. Usually a 60% solution is prepared. To do this, take 1 liter of water for 1.5 kg of sugar. Add a few drops of vinegar essence to the sugar solution. When diseases are detected, drugs or pollen are added to the syrup. The main thing is to choose the right time for feeding and not to overuse the sugar solution. Feeding too late and for a long time can lead to the flight of bees.
It is better to give sugar syrup at the end of August or early autumn. Feeding must be completed by September 10. Sugar syrup is very harmful to insects. Bees have to spend a lot of energy processing this product. Old insects that process the solution may not survive until spring. The main thing is that young bees do not feed on the syrup.
Bad Uterus
The life of the hive depends on the queen. It is she who lays eggs from which bees, drones, and young females hatch. For fertilization, the young queen flies out of the hive and mates with at least 12 males. The resulting seed is enough for the rest of your life. In one season, a female can lay up to 200,000 eggs.
The queen feeds all her life on royal jelly, and in rare cases (before swarming) on honey. In addition to the main female, worker bees feed several young queens. They are kept in case the main queen is unable to lay eggs. If the reproductive capacity of an old female declines, the bees expel her from the hive. A “quiet change” of the uterus occurs.
Old females are replaced by young ones. The main thing is that the hive is not left without a queen. After all, it is the female who secretes a substance that serves as a signal of well-being for the bees. If the queen disappears and there is no smell of her in the nest, then the bee colony behaves restlessly and often flies away from the hive.
During the period of female replacement, problems with reproduction are possible. Often young queens cannot find drones to mate with and remain unfertilized. A barren female also lays eggs, but only drone eggs. Such an anomaly can lead to the degeneration of the bee colony. The life of the hive depends on the fertilization of the queen.
Black honeycomb
Worker bees secrete wax and use it to build honeycombs.Brood is hatched in these wax cells and honey and beebread are stored. Honeycombs remain light-colored for a long period. The cells in which the brood is grown turn black over time.
The honeycombs in which the queen constantly lays eggs become clogged with cocoons and excrement. The depth of the cells changes due to accumulated debris. However, the queens continue to lay their eggs in the black combs. Small bees develop in littered cells. They often become infected with mites and viruses living in excrement. Over time, the bee colony may fly away from the black comb hive and move into a cleaner home.
Warm autumn
Bees collect nectar and pollen when plants bloom, that is, in summer. In autumn this food is not available. As the weather gets colder, insect activity dies down. Bees form a winter club, eat a small amount of honey and prepare for the winter. Too warm autumn can activate the bee season. Insects begin to fly actively and use up their reserves. Such activity exhausts the bees' body (they die).
The influence of honeydew
Bees can collect not only nectar from flowers, but also sticky liquid from the needles of coniferous trees and linden leaves. Honeydew is secreted by some insects (aphids). The diet of bees affects the color of honey. The transition to feeding on honeydew occurs in rainy or, conversely, dry summers.
Honeydew honey has a brown or greenish color. It contains a lot of minerals, amino acids, protein, and phytoncides. This honey is good for humans, but harmful to bees. The increased protein content in honeydew negatively affects the digestion of the bee family, and it flies off the hive.
Signs of a problem
The autumn gathering of bees usually occurs in September and is a complete surprise for the beekeeper.One bee family flies out of its hive early in the morning and never returns home. Moreover, there are no irritating factors or signs of concern. Other bee colonies swarm quietly in their hives. In the abandoned house there is no death (dead bees), honey reserves are intact. In the event of a sudden flight of bees, it is necessary to analyze the situation and understand why the insects left the nest.
What to do?
If bees fly away from the hive and do not appear in it again, you need to understand the reasons for this behavior of insects. First of all, you need to open the bee house and see what is going on inside. Problems are indicated by holes in the hive (the bees could be frightened by mice), stuffiness (poor ventilation), black honeycombs and death (mite or virus activity). In this case, it is necessary to repair the bee house, carefully clean and disinfect it, install new frames with wax, move in a new colony and feed it with sugar syrup and pollen.
If only worker bees disappear in the fall, but the queen surrounded by her retinue and brood remain, it means that the reason for the flight is not infection or poor condition of the hive. Workers could die from exhaustion and overwork. This happens if there was a field sown with sunflowers near the apiary. Worker bees worked all summer collecting honey for the winter. In the fall, their vitality could be at zero. In the event of an autumn gathering of worker bees, you need to take care of the surviving insects (insulate the hive before wintering).
Preventive actions
There are several ways to prevent the fall gathering. Preventive measures are recommended to be carried out in spring and summer, before the death or sudden disappearance of insects.
How to prevent bee swarms:
- plant honey plants near the apiary;
- treat bees against mites with the preparations “Varotom”, “Baivarol”, “Apistan”;
- remove old frames with black honeycombs, insert new ones with foundation;
- in the second half of summer, replace the old queen with a young one;
- in the warm season and even in winter, place plants (wormwood, mint, fir) in the hive to curb the proliferation of mites;
- leave at least 20 kg of honey in the hive for the winter;
- do not make noise in the apiary.
