One of those days?

[Perry]

Have you ever done something so stupid it defies explanation?  :roll:
Well.............
I took my usual approach to a hive this summer, one of my best. I'd pulled 3 nucs, done a split, used a frame of brood for Adam and I to take grafts out of, and had 2 honey supers on it. This queen was awesome, that's why I chose it for the grafts.
I noticed heavy bearding (we were in the middle of a heat wave) so not wanting to potentially lose a swarm from it I figured I better take a look. I removed the 2 honey supers and set them aside. Then, as I always do, I cracked the top deep, slid it forward and looked at the bottom of the frames in the upper box. Sure enough, a capped swarm cell and a few almost capped ones as well.
Well, that seals it, I left the box on its end on top of the bottom deep and got a queen clip to start my hunt for the queen. When I got back to the hive I went to set the top box off to one side on its own. I picked it up and swung it over to set it down....................and proceeded to dump every frame in the box out.....I had it upside down!
I must have stood there for a full minute and I hope no one within a mile could hear me.
How could this happen? I was tired and sweating like a pig, even felt a little dizzy a couple of times, but to my best hive?
I put down the now empty box, went to my truck, got another telescoping cover and proceeded to frame by frame pick them up, check them over and set them back in the box. Bees were everywhere.. Once I had all the frames back in I decided to go through the untouched bottom deep and pray that hopefully she was in there.
Sure enough, frame 6 and there she was.
I quickly put her in a clip, rearranged the hive (minus 4 frames of brood and a frame of foundation that I placed in a nuc) and placed the queen in the nuc. I made sure that the hive had at least a couple of decent cells (including the capped one that miraculously wasn't damaged).
What could have been a disastrous day ended up OK.

I only post this embarrassing episode because a few members here (no names, Apis) like to remind me of this from time to time, subtly perhaps, but just in case any of you are wondering.  :lol:

[Zookeep]

hate to say it but just because the cells looked unharmed does not mean they were, you need to make sure there were a few queen cells in the bottom box,I would not count on any in the top box, even a quick shake will damage the queens in the cells never mind a drop on the ground, and as far as your mistake, every1 has dropped things, I know I have

[jb63]

We had a helper last summer that dumped a wheelbarrow full of mortar on his first day with me.We nick named him dumper :lol:  :lol:  :lol: The best is he answered to it.

[LazyBkpr]

Done something SO stupid that it defies explanation???

   Good lord son....  do you know who your talking to?

   Lets see...  How about finishing up in the bee yard.. coming in, putting everything away.. feeling good about what you accomplished today...   spend the evening with wife watching football thinking how good life is.. get up the next morning.. take coffee to the window and look out at bee yard.... and see a MASSIVE CLOUD of bees EVERYWHERE!!!!!!    GO RUNNING OUT INTO THE YARD in your underwear throwing box tops on the ground as you run..... because you forgot to put the honey supers BACK on the last four boxes when you inspected last evening...  get stung over a dozen times SLAMMING them back on their boxes YOWLING like a wounded cat with each new sting, and then running back for the house JUST as fast as you can go!!!!  SLIIIIIIIDE through the door with a GASP of relief... and hear....     "EEEEEE, EEEEEEEEE, EEEEEEEEEE, EEEEEEEEEE,  snort, gasp, EEEEEEEEEEE, EEEEEEEEE  etc....  <-----  wife laying on floor, feet kicking, hands around stomach, tears rolling down face.. eyes squinted shut... mouth open....

    ALL you can really do is try to ignore her and hope she laughs so hard she has a accident in her pants....

[jb63]

That's a good one.

[G3farms]

lazy that is going to be hard to beat! :lol: