50 bee stings in left hand and more than 30 in the right hand

What a weekend. It was lovely and hot and I had the task of moving 2 bee hives, each hive had about 60,000 bees and 1 supper full of honey  to the orchard. The bee hives were at my home and both have lots of queen cells and were due to swarm. The hive and it's contents weigh around 50 kgs. These hives are in a normal urban garden for a post 1st world war house, and are my most productive. I check them every week, my son has grown up with them always being in the garden and I like them in the garden. They have never been a nuisance and are well behaved. I have been stung by them but not often. My children have never been stung and my son has no fear of the hives or the bees.

I wanted to move them to the orchard before they swarmed. The work started on Friday night. I went with my equipment it was about 8:30 and then realised, each of the hives still had several hundred bees sitting on the back and front of each hive. If I moved the bees with say a feather and waited for them to enter the hive it would be very dark and difficult to then move them firstly into the car and then to the orchard. So I cancelled the move until the following day.

Bees chilling at the back of the bee hive

Saturday 8pm armed with more determination and my hive cable strap tool to tie up the hive I was ready, in my bee keeping smock and a pair of rubber gloves, that provide me the grip and flexibility for the task. I sealed the hive entrance with a piece of foam as I've read in many books and exactly what I had done when I bought the bees to the garden originally a couple of years ago. I still had lots of bees flying about but I couldn't wait for them to all enter the hive, and then collect them. I first got stung when I moved the hive from its originally location and placed it on the floor so I could use a sack trolley to move them. More than a couple of stings on each hand, and I had quickly moved them about 3 meters from where they had been. I had a couple of steps to negotiate and a number of bees were following and a couple more stings.

I then moved the hive to the side entrance to the house, and let them settle the bees that had followed had disappeared so I removed the smock veil and gloves. I didn't want to wheel the hive around the front of the house in full bee-keeping regalia.  The moment I had open the side gate, and returned to the hive I realised the foam, or a small portion of it had come ajar and a couple of thousand bees had come out, a couple more stings including one to the side of my head.

I had to wait 20 minutes for them to go in and settle down again. I then used some duct tape to seal the entrance, as well as the foam, which they didn't like and I got stung a couple more times. I found it very difficult to use duct tape with gloves on, managed it eventually after a couple of attempts. Then finally I got them into the car and arrived at  the destination at about 10:30pm, and it was dark, very dark. I get them out of the car and almost into the location I want them. They are on the ground awaiting me to lift them onto the brick stand. Its a this point I realised that the supper section of the hive and the Brood box section have come slightly ajar, and I have thousands of bees in a new location, in the dark whizzing around. The hive is not in the right location, I don't have my smoker and I know I am in trouble. I quickly put the hive back into alignment, and its next to the stand but not on it. The hive entrance is still blocked with the foam and the tape, I want to remove the tape and realised I didn't have my hive tool to remove the foam, so I use my car keys to jab and remove the foam. While this is going on I am being stung on my hands, and arms, a couple even managed to sting me my legs and stomach area. I pulled out the foam, and walk away tried, frustrated and in pain, and know this job is not finished I need to lift the hive onto the stand. I know that in the dark its pointless, I have to come back in the morning and lift the hive and put it correctly in place.

So I return at 7am it was light, the bees had, had time to settle down and some of the bees should have gone out to forage etc. I had my smoker and hive tool with me, and placed the hive in its new position and on the stand. However I still go stung again. By now my hands had inflamed so much they had doubled in size and I could no longer wear my wedding ring, which I had taken off as soon as I had been stung the first time more than 12 hours previously. Finally the hive was in place.

I still had the second one to do that evening. I arrived early about 7:30pm with yet more determination and very little enthusiasm. Firstly I sealed the hive and the supper with duct tape then sealed the 3 sides of the floor and the brood box. leaving only the entrance open. I placed the hive strap around the hive, and tighten it. I then had to brush off a couple more bees from of the back of the hive this time using a twig from conifer tree. I then sealed the hive entrance this time only with the duct tape and then moved the hive a couple of feet away and then onto my sack truck. Once again I have upset them so much that I was stung again a couple more times. This time though the pain was less intense and with determination overflowing I moved the hive, but am followed by more bees. Once halfway up the garden path I stopped and notified my neighbours that I was moving the bees and they should take their children indoors for a couple of minutes. I don't want anyone else getting stung.

My brother, my wife and my sister having helped me move the hive

I managed to get them into the car as my mobile phone was ringing it was my brother and well now was not an appropriate time to take the call, once the bees were safely in the car I could still see at least 20/30 bees now in the car, well just waiting for me to get in.

My brother arrived and I asked him for help, though reluntanly as he was in shorts. I have a spare bee suit but only a smock so no trousers. We drove to the orchard with a couple of bees in the back of the car. We drove to the orchard and did something that I don't normally do, I took the car driectly onto the grass which had been cut the day before, and upto where the hives are and  took the hive out of the car with help from my brother and then using the sack trolley we moved the hive to its new  location and onto the stand. I then I removed the duct tape and the bees are free. I still had a couple of bees in the car they were sitting around the on the floor and we gave them a gentle nudge to encorage them to fly off.

Third hive finally at the orchard

It was a tough process to move them and I'm so glad they are moved. However lessons have been learned

1. Never move hives with suppers. 
2. Use duct tape to seal the hives prior to moving hives
3. Use more than 1  hive strap when moving hives.
4. Its a two man job, ask for help
5. Set up the location that the bees are going to in advance. ie set up the stand
6. Plan ahead well ahead
7. If they don't need to be move "don't move them" 

The picture quality may not be great they were taken from the mobile phone