Tie-Down Straps to Secure the Box

Great Idea.  Tie-Down Straps give a tight, secure connection that are easy to use, and will not deteriorate or be affected by wind or weather.  They can be cinched down as tightly as needed.  They are sturdy.

The only problem is making the attachment. You are taking the box up a rickety 30' ladder, to attach to what is essentially a rope ladder slung over the top of the building.  To connect the box to the ladder, you will have to do the following steps:

• Carry the box and the straps up the ladder
• Balance the box while you attach the straps
• Extend the box out into the space you want it
• Hook the strap around the far side of the rope ladder
• Slide the box through the strap
• Hook the strap around the near side of the rope ladder
• Slide the box through the strap
• Cinch the far strap tight while holding on to the near side
• Cinch the near strap tight 
• Alternate between the two straps until the box is secure

Now, at the end of every step above, add the words, "and do not fall."

Two decisions were made early on.  1st was, that if you felt the box begin to lose balance, that there would be NO attempt to save it.  Because the words, DO NOT FALL were added to the end of every sentence.  Easier even to replace brood and eggs than a femur.  Or a spine.  Or parietals.  

Second decision was to pre-stage the straps.  By looping them in the rope ladder ahead of time, all that remains is to slide the box through the strap and cinch it tight.  It requires estimating how much slack will be needed, but it frees up hands to do the balancing.

Unfortunately, there are not enough hands to provide an extra to hold on while performing the undertaking.  So you will have to balance carefully.

After you secure the straps to the rope ladder, you climb with the box.  Unfortunately, you are holding the box the wrong way, with the entrance away from the trap-out location.  But hopefully the bees will figure it out, since it would be nearly impossible to swap ends while you are up there.

You slide the box in.  This is the precarious moment, where you are in the greatest danger of overbalancing.  You carefully extend your arms, and, balancing the box on one hand, you extend your other, opening the hole for the box to fit into.  

Success.  There is a lot of slack, since you overestimated to avoid not having enough.  But that is OK.  You slide the near side into the loops, and you are home free.  Now it is just a matter of cinching it tight.

You begin to tighten the straps, a little from each side, and are very nearly done, when the box gives a sickening lurch.  

For a moment, you consider trying to save it. And then think better.  

And you watch in horror as the box, complete with eggs and brood from your other hive, slips out of both loops and drops thirty feet to the concrete below.

The box pops open.  Honey oozes from the broken mass of frames.  Broken bee larvae dropped out of the frame, and the box is a mess.  The frames themselves broke - the plastic ones shattered, the wooden ones broke in several places, and the empty ones are chipped and dinged pretty badly.

The whole thing is very discouraging.

On the other hand, by letting it fall, you avoided a terrible fate of your own.  And frames can be replaced.  

So you do - replace the frames, that is.  After trying to tape up the box, you decide to replace it entirely, and put new brood and frames in, reusing what you can, and climb up again.

But maybe you should try using bungee cords, instead.