Install Day part 1

So here goes, install day:

We picked the bees up around 10 am. I was pretty excited because this was THE DAY but also extremely nervous because I didn't want to screw up and damage the bees or have them run off. I had watched at least 10 different install videos and even the first time beekeepers made it look pretty easy. I had read different advice about spraying them with sugar water so I decided not to do that. As we drove them home I was impressed with how quiet and mellow they seemed. A bee or two were lose in the car but they never even flew near us.

We got them to my parents place around 11 am. My mom had to go to work so she took off before the action took place. My dad watched from the safety of a bedroom window, heckling us like the muppet movie critics.  Jack was my assistant in the absence of my mother, which is good because his grounded calm offset my heightened emotions. The first snafu was misplacing the sugar plugs. I didn't realize I had misplaced them until after I removed the queen from the first package. It took us a few minutes to find them. After that I was able to remove the cork and put in the plug. I became fixated on the idea that I had to place the cage candy side up which the cage was not designed for so I ended up just placing it on one of the frame bottoms. (I realize this was for queens with attendants and mine didn't have any so this was unnecessary) Then it was time to firmly tap down the bees and pour them out. Watching the video after I realize I didn't tap the package anywhere close to hard enough and that most of the bees were still clinging to the sides when I started the pour. I struggled to get them out of this package and ended up spilling some on the ground and having to scoop them up. After a few minutes (the video is greatly shortened, we cut it when the F-bombs started to drop) I realized the ones left were not coming out so I placed the package in front of the cage and tried to close up the hive. I put on the feeder bucket over the inner cover and them put a box around it and put on the outer cover. I may have squished a bee or two. Some decided to fly into the top feeder box so I had to leave it open a little so they weren't trapped in there. A good amount of bees stayed in the package for hours after and only went into the hive when it started to rain.
The difficult install kicked up quite a few bees in the air but nobody got stung. One even crawled up my pant leg but I was able to lift the pant leg and brush it away. I was also aware that this install had not gone very smoothly and I was internally freaking out.

The Gambino: You can't see in this picture but there were quite a few stubborn bees left