When environmental condition of Japanese honeybee nest becomes worse, they move the nest from old place to new place. It is abscond.
Reason for abscond is summarized below.
1) Too high temperature of inside of the nest in summer season.
2) Amount of honey stock in hives gets very small due to poor flowers around the nest.
3) Warms get in the nest.
4) Hornet attacks the nest.
5) The nest is destroyed.
In each case, they get out the nest and get together to make a bee ball as same as the time of swarming. If the queen bee is in the ball, they are quiet. Some bees explore suitable place for their nest. Then all the bees move to new place to make new hives.
In the summer of 1998, a newspaper reported that a swarm of honeybees appeared in Koshien Stadium. The swarm might escape from somewhere else.
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| beeball of abscond | bees of absecond at Kousien-ground |
I could not see the swarm in the photo of the newspaper, then I obtained original photo from the company. In the photo I could see white stripes on the abdomen of the bee, showing they are Japanese honeybees.
Honeybee breeders say that western honeybees do not abscond so often comparing to Japanese honeybees. Reason why the behavior, abscond, is succeeded in Japanese honeybee is that they have plenty of good places to make the nest, and then they can change the place for the nest. If you want keep your honeybees without abscond, you shall avoid bothering them in summer season.
