Wait, how many hives?!

When my husband finally convinced me to get the bees we discussed getting a single hive. Makes sense, right? I mean I needed to figure out what I was doing, see how the bees were going to be in the neighborhood and just genuinely start slow and see where things went. I purchased all the necessities and started readying myself for the shipment.

As I did more research and read what experienced beekeepers had to say it became apparent that we needed to do two. Okay, not ideal but I was up for the challenge. So I set out once again purchasing all the necessities. I had to rethink where I was going to put the hive and how I was going to keep the dogs from disrupting the bees and getting stung.

When we finally received shipping notification that the bees were coming I started to get nervous. Real nervous. All the doubts and questions started to be front and center. How was I going to do this? Are the bees going to be a nuisance to the neighbors? What happens if I fail and kill all these bees? And on, and on, and on. It didn't help that we had issues with the shipping and the bees didn't come when we expected them. So that added more time for me to fret over the unknown.

Fast forward to delivery day, April 6th, and the bees don't show up. After a lengthy chat with Tractor Supply (fantastic customer service by the way) over when I was to expect my bees we determined the week of April 19th was solid. That was when they showed bees being sent to California and he trusted that info the most. Ok perfect. Now we had a solid date to go by. Three days later I get notification from UPS that the package is delivered. Wait, huh? That couldn't be. Of course hubs was unreachable so I had to take off of work to rush home. All I could imagine was two boxes of bees sitting on my porch and bees swarming everywhere.

As soon as I pull in to the driveway I was pleasantly surprised to not see any bees flying about. Okay, one fear nixed. But as I walk up to the door I realize we have a problem. There is not one, not two but THREE boxes of bees on my doorstep. Houston, we have a problem! I stop dead in my tracks and have a slight panic attack. I wasn't ready for this and I sure wasn't ready for 3 hives. But seeming as I couldn't just ship them back I had to tackle the challenge.

Thankfully I have an amazing boss who understood my dilemma and let me take off early to solve my problem. Unfortunately it required us running all over the Bay Area to find the tools we needed.

But once I had the supplies I knew I was up for the challenge. Now we had to start with getting the bees from this box to the hive......