Yoon Sik Kim, Ph.D. said:

> I was installing ?" wire-mesh-mouse-guards...
> ...huge black  bees boiled out, as I *gingerly* hammered in three
> U-shaped, smallest fence nails, on the edges of the hive and one at the center.

I'd leave the hammer and nails in the toolbox next time.

We use thumbtacks.  I like the "old-style", with the flat silver or colored metal
heads, not the newer cheap plastic push-pin type.

Walk up, position the mesh, and push in thumbtacks  No hammering, no
dropped nails, no banged fingers, and if it is cool or dusk and the bees are
inside, they never even notice you are there.  The tacks pry out with a hive tool,
another silent and vibration-free process.

Another trick is to carry a single a strip of 8-mesh (or even window screen)
that is slightly narrower and thinner than the mouse guards.  Align the two,
which are assumed to be pre-bent in a 90-degree angle, place in position,
hold in place with one finger above the entrance, and press thumbtacks into
the mouse guard (but not the 8-mesh) with the other hand.

The 8-mesh keeps any guard bees on the inside of the mesh until you are
done, and you can pluck the 8-mesh from the entrance after you have finished
attaching the mouse guard, stepped out of the flight path, and made your face
a less convenient/temping target.  (I can't remember the last time I got stung
when dealing with mouse guards, but it has been years and years.)

We love thumbtacks.  We use colors that match the yearly queen colors
to "date" frames, we use them to "anchor" apistan strips to frame top bars
so they don't fall down onto the bottom board, and to mark locations on
woodenware with "leak spots" where bees have found ad-hoc entrances.

                jim