The odd swarm from the first hive required that I combine what was left behind without a queen. I decided to split the hive boxes up. The two supers went to the hive in which I placed the swarm, which I have been calling the third hive. The brood box from the first hive, which is now just filling up with honey since there is no queen, no brood, and was the lowest box the bees could get to, was combined with the second hive. In the case of the second box, all the bees are at least first cousins and perhaps some are still sisters. The bees in the third hive were all sisters with the bees in the first hive. I did the usual, putting a piece of newspaper with slits cut in it between the existing hive bodies and the boxes that got placed on top. The only other adjustment needed was to remove the top feeder from the third hive.
Doug Shaw is out of town, so I pulled a couple of men from church. Randy Daniels actually put on a veil and gloves and kept the smoker going. Before it got handed to Randy, Parker Funk got the smoker good and lively for me. Ray Teague pitched in with a tool when I thought I had lost my hive tool, which I found on top of the hives when I actually got down to them.
So, technically, I guess I need to renumber hives. Maybe I will do that. Maybe I will just name them differently, east and west or split and swarm. I have to think about it.
I went by this morning to inspect. The split hive was very lively. I think brood had recently hatched and there were a lot of orienting flights. The swarm hive is a bit quiet. They haven't had time to produce young bees yet. They've only been in the hive 11-12 days and they started with no drawn comb.
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