>But when I lift up on it, it's lifting perpendicular to the latches, so the top cover comes up about 1/8"

That was my problem.

>Two bees wriggled out as I was handling the OH, which cause some mild panic amongst the audience.

I had the same experience. But what was worse was the bee landed on a young man's arm and promptly crawled up his sleeve. Luckily he was very calm and we got the bee out without him getting stung, but it did not leave a good impression on the adults in the room...