WOW…I had bees! I gently placed the mini wooden crate filled with gold in the boot of my car. It was secured snuggly enough so that the box would not bounce around if I hit a bump or stopped abruptly, but not so locked-down as to risk smothering my charges before we ever reached home. The bees were nervous. So was I.

It had been prearranged that my mentor Jimmy, (an energetic young Asian man from my bee support group who maintained five top bar hives) would show up at 4:30 to aid with the installation of my bees. I had been instructed in class, educated by books and visually  coached via WAM’s videos on the proper installation technique, however no amount of vicarious knowledge competes with experience so I was of an easier-mind that Jimmy would be present. Peter Rabbit couldn’t have been more anxious concerning the proximity of Mr. McGregor than I while waiting, gathering my supplies and checking my new cedar hive for squatter ants, nesting spiders or any other varmint. I water misted the bees to help satiate their thirst. Being cooped up for days had left them fatigued and dehydrated.

When Jimmy’s Nissan pulled up, I recognized that I was excited, relieved and petrified all at the same time. It was show time. Wearing my hooded jacket, gloves and boots, I greeted him in the driveway, chagrined by the fact that he was clad in business casual.

“Jimmy,” I asked nervously, Where’s your gear? Would you like to borrow a veil and gloves? I have extras.”

“No thanks,” he stated matter-of-factly. “I seldom wear protection when I go into my hives. (What a Pro!) And besides, you’re doing all the work, I’m just watching.”

My throat went dry. It wasn’t that I was having buyers remorse or a panic attack over a butt-load of stinging insects, it was that I was afraid to be singularly responsible. I had  anticipated being the sous-chef, not the chief cook. This was literally “do or die.” If I didn’t do it right, THEY  would die. The bees would either be crushed or immediately fly away leaving Rosie trapped and dangling in her tiny prison. Reading the terror on my face, Jimmy  smiled reassuringly while patting my shoulder, “You can do it. You have waited months or this moment, I’m here for you, but you’re in charge!”

So I resignedly pulled up my big girl pants and took the lead. Approaching the hive with caution, I set the box on a tree stump and freed Rosie’s cage. There she was, wearing a wee blue dot on her back to identify her as the queen she was. I wound a wire around her cage and hung her in the middle of an empty bar 1/3 of the way down the hive. She looked isolated and lonely, but I knew that if all went well, the other bees would accept her and her attendants would have her released in a day or two.

It was now or never. With a flat head screw driver, I pried off the lid, removed the syrup can and in one swift movement, turned the crate with 10,000 bees upside down and thumped it hard catapulting them from their confinement into the bare bottom of the hive. They pummeled one another as they fell. Many refused to leave the security of their cell, so I thumped them again. I knew at this point that they needed to be stirred like spaghetti sauce to keep them from asphyxiating one another. As I gently ladled them side to side with my hive tool, they began filling the bottom board and racing up the interior sides of the hive looking like Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders charging San Juan hill. Wasting no time, I reset the naked top bars, being careful not to squash any deserters and closed the hinged roof. There were a few stragglers clinging to the interior of the crate, so I sat it near the entrance hole, praying the dawdlers would figure out the location of their new home and enter of their own volition.

Slumping with relief, I heaved a satisfied sigh and smiled at Jimmy. “YOU DID IT!,”  he said as a big cocky-ass grin spread across his face. “You did a great job and you did it all by yourself.”  And while pumping my hand in a felicitous manner he added, “Congratulations! You just graduated and are now OFFICIALLY a Bee Keeper!”

Rosie’s first view of her new castle.