Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor – January 2026
Up Close and Personal with an Absconded Colony
Mike and I had the strangest experience on a Saturday afternoon in early October with a hive that absconded. I am not talking about when you look at your hive and it is gone; this was completely different.
We stopped at a large bee yard to feed the bees. There are 21 hives at this location and all but one are on migratory pallets. We feed with a bucket on top like Ian Steppler does. All summer long one of our hives at this location had struggled with chalkbrood. We treated this hive. We re-queened this hive. Then the colony re-queened itself, all with no effect on the chalkbrood.
When we got to the bee yard there was a swarm on a tree. I knew immediately where it came from. The chalkbrood colony had absconded. It was as if the new queen said, “I’m getting out of this hive. I do not want to be on the old frames of the past queens.”
I opened the hive and sure enough it was empty. We have had one or two colonies abscond in the past, but to us that meant all the bees would disappear into thin air.
Mike left me in the bee yard, and he drove 12 miles back home to get a nuc with frames of food, a feeder, and a pollen patty. I had 20 hives to feed and had gotten all the way to hive 16 when suddenly, the absconded colony started filling the air. There was a cloud of bees above my head, and I was then covered with the swarm. It was exciting and extremely frightening at the same time. I am pretty sure it looked like a scene from a horror movie, however their behavior suggested something else and I knew they were not trying to sting me. To make things worse, I did not have my camera to record what was going on around me. They then proceeded to land on one of the buckets I had filled.
When Mike got back with the nuc, we searched for the queen and found her on the bucket. We placed her in the nuc and brushed the rest of the bees in. After feeding them syrup, we gave them a pollen patty and closed them up for the night.
The next day we went back and they were back on the bucket along with the queen. They had left the security of the hive, with frames of honey, pollen, and empty space. They were lined up on the top of the bucket to hold up the swarm! We left it there and hoped they would disperse into other hives around it.
Once again, we went back a third day. The night before, it had rained and the temperature dropped to 50°F. Some of the absconded bees had died, but the queen was still there along with the workers. I captured the queen and caged her. Without the queen surely the workers would disperse to other hives.
I called my professor from the University of Montana (Dr. Scott Debnam) to get some advice on what to do with the queen. He stated that we should not keep those genetics in our apiary and should get rid of that queen. The rest of our colonies are thriving, and there was no way that a small colony would make it through the winter.
Absconded colonies do not behave like a swarm. We have never had any experience like this before. Their behavior is strange to say the least.
Laurie and Mike Lawrence
Hamburg Honey
Athens, Wisconsin
Discovering Stingless Bees in Cuba
Before COVID hit I had sent a deposit for a beekeepers’ tour of Cuba. It was cancelled and then I hadn’t really thought about it. But here it is six years later and I decided to take a “cultural” trip to Cuba. I had been attracted to the Island for many reasons: culture of the area, food, agriculture, pirates and historic mob activities.
Arriving on a Friday morning at Jose Marti International Airport, I was met by my guide Ivan and our blue 1952 Chevy taxi. We made a couple cultural stops on our way to my apartment and I casually mentioned to Ivan that I was interested in honey bees. Ivan related that a friend had just introduced him to a beekeeper and he had visited his place. He said he would see what he could do to set something up.
My hopes were realized on Sunday morning when we set off for the “Las Terrazas” biosphere. Here our local guide showed us around the abandoned coffee plantation. Then we visited the local beekeeper, who lives with his mother who started with the stingless bees years ago. These bees are about a third the size of “our” bees and are kept in frameless hives about the size of a 5-frame medium nuc. They both were very informative and let us taste the honey and pollen of their bees through hollow plant stems. The taste was infused with the taste of many tropical plants.
After we left the beekeepers we visited the local “farm to table” restaurant on the same property. We had a great lunch and here the waiter also had stingless bees and several customers were sampling their honey!
In conclusion, I would like to let others know what an interesting and informative trip this was. I never dreamed I would have the opportunity to investigate stingless bees or Cuba in this lifetime.
For further information contact info@culturalislandtravel.com
Neil Brunner
Stockton, Missouri
Cleaning Your Smoker
Being a small commercial beekeeper with 500 hives, I use my smoker quite a bit. I store it on my truck in a smoker box. This carries the smoker, as well as a compartment for hardwood pellets, and a bin for pine needles, and keeps it out of the weather. I don’t have to worry about my smoker tipping over or getting smashed (unless, say, I forgot to put it in the smoker box before packing up …), and lighting anything combustible on fire on the way to the next bee yard. Although there are vent holes in the box, the smoker does get sooted up over time.
Once or twice a year, I clean up my smoker, using oven-cleaner spray. Spray it on, let it sit, and rinse it off, and repeat a few times. It doesn’t get spotless, but it does clean off a lot of the soot. A wire brush and hive tool help with some of the stubborn deposits. I also do a little sheet-metal work on the smoker, making sure the lid opens easily, and fits snug. Before I reload the smoker with wood pellets, I turn the smoker upside down, and gently tap on the bottom with my hive tool, to clear any ash out from below the ash screen at the bottom. I do this pretty often during the season.
I usually replace my smoker every couple of years, when it starts getting a little beat up, or the bellows gets scorched through. A little maintenance now and again makes life easier. I hope that this helps you out with your beekeeping.
Andy Hemken
Big Bend, Wisconsin
