One of my hives has an orange letter A on it as a visual marker. Several times over the last few weeks I've seen a lone carpenter bee resting at the top of the A, always in the same spot.
I've had the medium entrance reducer installed, but finally pulled it off Friday. Yesterday I noticed the carpenter bee was back, and watched as it checked out the entrance, touched down on the landing board, and scurried into the now wide open entrance. I wondered how this would turn out for about two seconds. The invader came racing back out, shot off the landing board and hive stand, crashed to the gravel below, and took off across the ground. A worker bee was attached to the left side of his abdomen near the thorax. The big bee raced to the bear fence and crawled under, and then finally took off for the woods, with the worker still attached.
I doubt we'll ever see either one again. A memorial service will be held this evening in honor of the brave little bee who sacrificed herself against an intruder that must have been around ten times her weight.