The afternoon I went to transfer the bees to a proper hive was sunny and warm, very lucky. I had checked the sugar water to see if they had sipped any or if the pollen patty had been munched. It appeared a couple of bees had fallen in the sugar water. What was meant to be a loving gesture of nourishment turned out to be a death trap. Typical. It also appeared that ants have located the patty. I had not slept. I was worrying about how I was going to pull this off. The only sliver of comfort afforded to me were the reassuring words of the pregnant lady at Beekind. She pointed out the fact that my new bees are a wild swarm. They obviously know how to take care of themselves. They have survived this long. A very good point she made.

I was on high alert for the UPS truck. Every utility vehicle that rounded our busy corner made me look up to check. I never realized how many Brinks, FedEx and landscaping vehicles pass by us. I reread the parts of my bee book that explain how to properly handle bees; how to transfer bees; how to remain calm. The bee book says bees don’t like sweaty human smells and not overly clean synthetic scent smells. Oookay. I thought through how to time things so I could strike the balance of not sweaty but not too clean either. I also made a gallon of sugar water in advance so it could cool. I don’t know if I am allergic to bee stings and if it hasn’t been made clear, I was horribly unprepared for these bees. So naturally I had no Epipen. Between noon and three I expected UPS to deliver my veil and a smoker. I was hoping they’d included a spine in there as well.

I gathered the veil, smoker, dish gloves and white hoodie in a box feeling like a small but organized child with a plan. I used pine needles to light the smoker and watched thick smoke billow out immediately realizing neighbors will likely think there is a fire. I tried walking around to keep the smoke puffs dissipating or at least moving around so it would not look like a stationary thing on fire. I am not so sure it is better to think something that can run back and forth is leaving trails of smoke in its wake. In the moment it made sense. Not more than five minutes later I heard a helicopter and thought “No way! Do they circle our neighborhood looking for news?” Scared of attracting attention, I ran to the BBQ pit and held the cover in one hand and placed the smoker on the grill to make myself appear an amateur outdoor cook. This turned out to be safe spot to leave the smoker while I suited up.

It had not truly occurred to me how populated and visible of an area I live in until I put the white hoodie, gardener’s hat, gloves and beekeepers veil on. At a distance, I appear to be either handling toxic materials or pretending to be the Julianne Moore character “Carol” from the movie Safe. I was highly visible from three side of my yard.

Between getting things in place, freaking out about my visibility, the amount of smoke pouring out the smoker and anxiety about my first experience of handling bees, I started to sweat. Thinking of how sweat can provoke bees, I started to sweat some more. Nonetheless, I would not be stopped. Smoker in hand I embarked. I started to removed the top of the nuc box. It felt stuck in place so I had to jostle it a bit which made the bees started funneling around me. Then I realized the lid was screwed shut and I had no screwdriver. A few obscenities later, sweat now dripping and screwdriver in hand, I removed the lid. Claudio had said there were five frames. I am never sure if I know what he is talking about. Portuguese is his first language and his concepts sometimes seem like he is translating back and forth in his head losing pieces of his thoughts along the way. There were only three frames. Two of which were fused together so I lifted the one free frame and placed it in the hive. Then smoked the box some more and noticed my smoker was going out. I lifted the two heavily buzzing fused frames and placed these in the hive. With my smoker going out I wasn’t going to spend much time “getting to know” my bees. I did not examine the frames. I just lifted the nuc box and dumped the remaining bees into the hive along with some unidentifiable insect debris.

I placed the pollen patty on top of the frames, the feeder and cover on top of that, and lightly shoved the hive over to the exact place the nuc box had been. Apparently bees can easily get disoriented if you move their hive. My smoker was out and I was done for the day. No stings. This was a great start in my opinion.