Last Friday I finally received my long awaited package of bees. I was supposed to meet my package provider in the parking lot of a Red Roof Inn to pick up the bees. Many of my co-workers and friends thought this was a bit shady. Reflecting on the meeting-in-a-motel-parking-lot part, I guess it was. Despite my co-workers’ warnings that I would be murdered, I left work a bit early and got to the rendezvous point just after the bee truck pulled in. Luckily, kidnapping prospects were low since there were several other local beekeepers already on site picking up their packages. (Not to mention that the gentleman I dealt with was very helpful and more interested in keeping the bees safe than anything else. Plus I didn’t see any ‘F’ ratings on his BBB page for murdering former clientèle.)
I thought the truck organization was the most interesting part of the whole 10 minute process to get the bees. To get my order of Italian queens he went to a section of this 3 dimensional array of shoebox-sized bee packages in the back of the trailer. In order to fetch my package he actually sawed off one of the packages from the grid and handed it to me. I nearly dropped it. When I ordered a 3 pound package of bees, I imagined it would be 3 pounds – this thing was closer to 10 or 12 pounds. (Later I realized that most of the weight came from the sugar water – which caused me some difficulty when prying it out of the package. See the video!)
My first bee package!
Once I got the bees home, and my videographer (aka husband) was home from work it was game time. You can watch my whole experience (well whole experience shortened to 12 minutes) in the video below!
Before you watch the video, I should note something obvious. There were thousands of bees in that package. According to The Backyard Beekeeper there are around 3,500 bees in a pound. I’ve never been one of those girls that freaks out when a bee is nearby, but the sheer volume of bees was pretty terrifying, and they were everywhere, crawling all over my hands and body. I had prepped myself mentally for this moment for weeks by trying to stop my flinch reflex when bugs or other crawly things were on me. (Not a good reflex to lose when you’re dealing with mosquitoes.) Even with all my mental preparation I began to get very nervous when I was pulling out the sugar syrup can. You’ll notice in the movie that I drop it once. At that point the bees started crawling out of the hole beside the can in droves. I must have released a couple hundred of them. My husband went inside to grab me pliers so I simply sat there and let these honeybees crawl all over me and lick my hands which were sticky with sugar syrup. It was overwhelming – but after a few minutes I must have hit a neural melt-down, or zen moment, or something because I felt completely calm and serene.
After the whole process was over I admitted to my husband that I had two fears before getting the bees. My first fear was that I would be so terrified during the initial process that I would give up and be unable to hive the bees. My second fear was that after a terrifying first experience I’d be unable to go back to the hive ever again. At least I conquered that first fear…
This was an action-packed apicultural adventure! (The camera-man needs a beekeeper suit too!) Post more videos!
I apologize for being the worst cameraman in history.
So you got the bees drunk on the sugar water and then had mellow drunk bees and loud drunk bees. I bet they had a massive hangover the next morning and was wondering how they ended up in that hive.
While I am thrilled that you were not murdered, I feel the need to point out a flaw in a portion of your thinking. Checking BBB is a good idea, but one must remember that murdered, former clientele almost never post bad ratings.