Moving Bees A Short Distance Is Killing Me

I knew that moving the bee swarm box from eight feet high on the top of the arbor down to a lower location ten feet away was going to be stressful, but I had no clue just how stressed I would get. Thankfully hubby has been helping me every slow step of the way. The worst part was getting it down from the starting location on the first night. The box is heavy and it was really high up, so that took about ten years off my life. The next morning watching hundreds of bees wake up and fly around crazy and lost was very sad to watch. Add to that the fact that moving the box jiggled things around inside, so some bees were injured or killed. Seeing the casualties from that was heartbreaking. I know I am doing it for the health of the colony, but that doesn’t really make it easier. I was shocked when I saw hundreds of bees flying all around outside of the bee box trying to get themselves reoriented with their home’s location. A quick call to my mentor helped calm my nerves down. He assured me this was all normal and that the colony wouldn’t be mad at me and leave. He also assured me to have faith in the process of moving them only two feet every other day. A rough method, but a good one. Only two more weeks of this…..arg.