Heather's Honeybees: August 4 I deserved it!

Because the first honey we took from the bees was so delightful, we decided to take two frames from my largest hive. This is the hive that has had a queen laying since June 11. They have stores of plenty and I really wanted a few more quarts for my cupboard. This hive has three boxes and I wanted to take a frame from the top and middle box. A bit trickier than only taking one frame, brushing bees and throwing the cover back on. I enlisted the assistance of another beekeeper. The evening was warm and muggy, a perfect night for sweating in a bee suit! We had a plan; remove the top box off the middle, grab a frame from the top, brush bees off and place frame in nearby empty box. Then go to middle box and take second frame, brush bees off and place in empty waiting box. Quickly place 50 pound box back on top of middle box, pop cover on and simply walk away with our two frames of honey. It sounded like a good idea. Brushing off bees tends to make bees angry, especially if the frame you are taking has honey and brood. (only 20 or so cells of brood). While attempting to get the second frame, the bees we had brushed off from the first frame were quite agitated. Flying into my veil at extremely high speeds and buzzing with a ferocity that began to sound like a roar, I knew this wasn't going as planned. Handing the second frame to my helper, I bent to hoist the heavy top box back onto the middle and as I did I felt a red hot poker piercing my knee. My sympathetic nervous system registered, PAIN!, while the rest of my brain screamed, "don't drop the box!" with 20,000 to 30,000 bees in it. I voiced, "I think I just got stung." My beekeeper friend says, "Really?". I quickly eased the box down and placed the top cover on the hive and that was that, my first sting. I, with all honesty, can say I deserved it.
Later I brought the frames into the house to harvest the honey from them. My nine year old daughter, who was watching said, "Look Momma, a baby bee is coming out" Sure enough, I had forgotten about the 20 or so cells of brood at the bottom of the one frame. She excitedly asked if we could watch the new bee emerge from it's cell. What kind of mother would I be if I denied her? I didn't realize it would take 20 minutes. I had hoped to get the frames back into the hive that evening (evening being around 8:30pm and it was getting darker). Finally around 9pm, the bee emerged and began walking daintily around the frame. She was cute. This is in my kitchen, in the house. My daughter says, "Aren't you going to put her back with her family?" It was basically dark now. All the beekeeping books I've read, reiterate over and over not to mess with the bees at night. Why? Because everybody is at home and they are cranky after a hard day's work and want to be left alone! I knew I shouldn't, but I did. An ominous sound came from within the hive when I lifted the inner cover. At lightning speed, I pushed the frame back down into the open space, whipped the covers back on and ran. I remembered thinking to myself as I read what NOT TO DO in beekeeping, that I would never do the what Not To Do when I kept bees. Never say never.