Split, swarm, chainsaw, robbing.

I split the hive on Saturday, removing seven frames of bees and brood, including a queen cell, and putting them in their own little snug home.

The girls swarmed anyway on Sunday. It was amazing. All morning I watched that hive, watched the girls hang out at the entrance, nervous and skittish. Other bees came out of the hole in the super and the vent notch in the inner cover. They were obviously waiting.

Around noon, the signal--whatever it was--came, and a cloud of bees flew overhead. The noise was incredible, like a small plane hovering over me as I watched.

Finally, they settled in a young maple tree near the hive--about 30 feet up. I got out my chainsaw and cut it down, but that helped me only a little--most of the swarm (and presumably, the queen) flew up into an adjacent tree. Worse, the chain came off my chainsaw, and was too bent to put back in. I scooped what bees hadn't flown off into a nuc, and considered my options.

I couldn't reach the branch the swarm was on. So I put out a bait hive, with ten frames soaked with sugar water and Honey-B-Healthy.

To make a long story short, they left on Wednesday. I tried another saw, the help of a neighboring 17-year-old, a ladder, and verbal encouragement to accept the bait hive. Nothing worked. When I came home Wednesday evening, the girls were gone. I hope they found a good spot, but it's much too late in the season for them to build a decent home.

My worry now is whether there is a virgin queen--or a mated queen--in the hive. Between last Saturday and Sunday, I found three dead queens outside the hive. I hope that means a fourth won the battle.

I combined the nuc-caught bees and the seven frames from the original hive, and a few days ago, started the newspaper method to recombine the main colony with those I split off.

And then today... I went out and found a robbery in progress. Now at least I know that there are other bees in the area. These robbers are mostly Carniolan types--black with gray stripes, or golden with thick black bands that run together. No doubt they found the upper story of the combined hive and decided it would be a soft touch.

The books say that bees don't rob during honey flows. Unfortunately, the bees don't read the books.

I stuffed grass into the holes drilled into the supers and put on entrance reducers. I did this for both hives, though the robbers are showing interest only on the upper story of the combined hive. I watched my girls struggle and fight bringing down the intruders and I listened to what must be the sound of thousands of bee feet against rustling newspaper.

So in this first, short season of beekeeping, my girls and I have been through supersedure, the death of a nuc, swarming, and robbing. We've also had a damned good honey flow from the goldenrod and asters, and I've pulled about 30 lbs of comb honey.