Yesterday was a busy day. I knew that I had two packages of bees in my basement that needed to be put in their hives immediately, but I had yet to build their hive stand or even buy the parts for the hive stand. So during my lunch break I drove to Lowes and purchased some of the items I would need, but I couldn't get everything. When work was over I hurried back to Lowes to grab the rest of what I needed and drove home as quickly as possible to make sure that I had enough daylight to build the hive stand and install the bees. Thankfully, the Polk family was in our home for piano lessons and so I was able to persuade them to help me build the hive stand. Within an hour we were ready to install some bees, but to be honest, even after watching countless videos and reading many books on how to install bees, I had no idea what to do when I was actually doing it. It was rough, but this is how it went.
I strapped on my bee suit and assembled the hives on their stand, grabbed the bee packages and bravely (with much trembling) prepared myself for the buzzing masses to be released. It started off well, as you will see below, but it quickly went very badly.
Due to my incompetence I successfully knocked the Italians' hive off it's base crushing hundreds of them. Then the frames inside the hive (even the one holding the queen cage) somehow fell over inside the hive. I have no idea how this happened and by all accounts it doesn't make sense, but it happened. While I cleaned up the mess and used my trusty bee brush to move them away from the edges of the base the inevitable happened. I was stung in my pinky. For my first time being stung, why the pinky? It's so small and fragile. At first I didn't know what had happened, but then the intense burning started and I was no longer thinking about the bees' safety. It all of a sudden became all about me and how bad this hurt. Within about a minute the pain stopped though and I was able to continue working, so I tossed the rest of the frames in the hive and moved on to the Carniolans. This video is blurry, but you will probably enjoy it more, that is, if you enjoy seeing a grown man get stung multiple times in the thumb. Enjoy!
After all was said and done, I hope our bees survive and thrive in our little backyard. Honey bees really are amazing creatures. A lot of people point to various other complex creatures in nature to show God's handiwork, but rarely do I hear anyone talk about the honey bee. If ever there were a creature that showed God's complexity, it is this one. I will probably write about this more as we continue in our bee adventures, but I encourage you to do some reading online and revel in God's majesty in his design of the honey bee. Finally, I want to make sure that we are all clear on one thing. Getting stung was my fault, and the bees can't be fully to blame for that. If you are afraid of bees, give the honey bee a chance. It is our friend first, and a helpful one at that, even with the barbed stinger that makes a grown man cry. God bless you all and I hope you enjoyed our first adventure in beekeeping!
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