Hi everyone.
This week Rain's challenge is Pollination, and this topic is right up my alley at the moment.
I'm going to start with a journal page for Matilde's bird challenge at Art Journal Journey. You should stop by and add some bird themed journaling if you have any. It would be a great way to welcome Matilde as a first time host.
Since my journal page is about birds, I looked up about birds and pollination. I knew hummingbirds were pollinators, and I was surprised there are over 2,000 species of birds that help pollinate. According to what I read, much of this bird pollination occurs in tropical places or places where insects are not as abundant. Bird pollination is called ornithophily, which is a new word for me. Common North American species that do ornithophily are hummingbirds and orioles.
OK, I didn't include bird pollinators on my page, but to make my page I used a hexagon (honeycomb) stencil and some watercolor markers. I used watercolor paints for the background splatters. I also used a couple of interesting paragraphs from a worn children's bird book. The flying birds, singing birds, bird cages and quote are stamped images. And I finished up my page with some washi tape as well as a pen to outline the honeycomb.
And since my pollinators have arrived and been installed in their hive, here's a few bee photos.
I needed to check the hive 5-7 days after the bees arrived to be sure the queen had eaten her way out of her little queen shipping box. That's when I discovered another issue.
One hive has mostly absconded. Oh no!
Basically that means that the bees from one hive have flown next door and joined the bees in the other hive. It's not exactly known why bees do this. I spoke to a woman where I got my bees from wondering if the shipping issues had anything to do with this, and she thought no. Her take on it was that the queen in the hive that the bees moved into has stronger pheromones. In this case those hormones are what attract the workers to their queen.
Now I have one hive very full of bees, and comb is already being made.
In this next photo I'm showing you the box the queen arrives in. Can you even see the box? There are bee ladies all over the queen's box. I needed to check that the bees had eaten out the candy cork so the queen could leave.
I really like in this same photo how I caught the bee flying towards the bottom right corner.
And the bad news is my other hive has a queen , but only a few ladies remain.
According to the woman I spoke with, these bees will abscond soon to the other hive as did the rest of their hive mates. I read that even the queen will go.
I've also read that I can move eggs, but since the queens are just coming out of their boxes there are no eggs to move. It looks like it will be a one hive summer again. Perhaps I shouldn't have ordered 2 boxes from the same distributor, as they say the most likely time bees abscond is when they are new to the hive. It's not a common thing to happen, but it's not rare either.
Oh well, at least I can I say I haven't lost bees.
Hope your week is going well!
Thanks so much for visiting also.
27 comments:
The bees are working hard :-) And I have learned a new and complicated word: rnithophily.
Good morning Erika, I really like your journal page-and wow interesting about the bees-Have not heard of this before-is there room for all the bees in one hive and also the honey?
always something new to learn hugs Kathy
I like how the background of your journal page ties in with your beehives. WOW, that is really interesting bout what happened to your hives. If the lone queen moves to the other hive, what happens to her? Does she get demoted and become a lady in waiting? Is she killed because there can only be 1 queen? Will she fly and try to bring bees with her to start a new hive? Can all those new bees fit in one hive?
You have some stubborn bees who are doing what they want! Love the photos you made! I hope they all do well this season. Your journal page is lovely, the honeycomb backgound links it all nicely together with the bees! Have a great day, bee happy! Hugs, Valerie
Hi Erika. I so enjoyed reading about the bees. Interesting how they moved to the other hive. I was wondering, (not knowing a thing about bee hives) if there is a bee hormone/pheromone spray or something to get the bees back to the other hive? Anyway, thank you for sharing the bees. Have a lovely day.
Lovely page and photos on the pollination topic!
A beautiful page Erika, and interesting to read about your bees. Glad you didn't lose any.
Boa tarde Erika. A matéria ficou muito interessante, parabéns.
I love following your adventure with the bees
Very appropriate aj page, I agree! The pollinators are an interesting topic and you made me remember what I'd researched last year. We've always had pretty much only pink and blue flowers (a little yellow) in our yards and I've only ever seen bees and butterfly pollinators. We were also wondering when planning to put up a hummingbird house, why we weren't getting hummingbird action except where the hummingbird bush is which has red flowers. Well, those are the pollinator's fave colors, respectively. Honey never did put up the house because we got stopped trying to decide what red flowers to plant along the fence where the bush is. He's on a cactus and succulent kick right now, but I should probably see if we can still plant anything along that fence. Have a good weekend, bee happy! lol xoxo
Lovely page, Erika!
How interesting about the bees absconding to the other hive. I hope the ones left join them.
I hope you enjoy your upcoming weekend,
Serena x
Such a beautiful page and I loved seeing your bees, looks like they'll be keeping you busy over the summer 😊. Take care and happy wishes! Hugs Jo x
Bees are a complete mystery to me, but I know they fascinate many authors. Everything about them is so different from humans!
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Interesting! I never knew of birds helping along in the process! Love your pages and wow, bees are complicated, never thought so much so!
I saw a short docu on how they communicate where to find good spots, very clever fellas.
Hormones, eh. It´s the same throughout all species, it makes some bling (like the female boos of the team I work for, LOL). Huhs
What an interesting and informative post. I do hope that you still get lots of honey from the one hive. Does this mean that they will produce much quicker because there are, kind of, two lots of bees in the one hive? Utterly fascinating.
Likewise about the birds and pollination. What a great page, informative and attractive. Love the honeycomb and how you have coloured it in and then the little birds and the pretty cages.
A fab post Erika.
Hugs, Neet xx
Good luck with your bees, Erika. I hope they do well following the disastrous over-wintering this year. The beekeepers that I know faced total loss in their hives and are starting afresh with fingers crossed for a good season. Speaking of avian pollinators, if ever you get a chance to travel to areas of Asia or Africa where sunbirds are active, you will see pollination in action on a grand scale, and birds that are every bit as dazzling as our hummingbirds. Hugs. David
Your art is perfect for the theme -- and your passion! But that's so bizarre? So do you need to order another round of bees to fill the other hive? Seems like that could be weird if there were two queens. Are the hives too close together? What a conundrum...
Every time I see a honeybee I think of you and am grateful someone who lives close to me has a hive :) Will your now-one hive ever divide? I'm learning a lot about bees from you. Thanks!
Such an interesting post, Erika! Kudos to you for having bee hives. I'm a rolling stone, so I'm away from home a lot. Consequently I don't have any animals depending on me. I love how you caught the bee flying in one of your photos. That was serendipitous! What fun! Have a good weekend!
I hope your bees thrive Erika, you are very brave to be looking after theme. You will guess That bees are not a favourite creature of mine as I get awful reactions if I get stung.
Its a fabulous journal page as well.
Yvonne xx
The art of bee keeping is quite fascinating I will adit, Erika. From reading your posts and the ones from Linda, I have learned a lot about queens and hive tending, but have no desire to raise them myself. That said, it is a good thing that you and others are doing so.
You have bees!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How wonderful Erika! I'm so glad that you have a healthy hive, even if they have absconded!!! How wonderful, good luck with your bee keeping!!! ♥
Bees, hives abd art. What a sharing. Bravo.
Thanks for dropping by at Art For Fun Friday
Much💛love
Very beautiful page! Thanks for mentioning me and my blog 😘 And thanks for sharing these incredible photos of bees 😍😍😍
Good for you for having even just one very crowded bee hive ... we need to do all we can to save and perpetuate our bee populations. You are a hero for doing this. Love your art work as well, you are clever and creative, Erika ... Stay well and don't get stung :0
Andrea @ From the Sol
Hi, when I visited Costa Rica I saw many of these Bird pollinations. Hummingbirds are such sweet birds and so much fun to watch. To bad we don´t have them. :(
I love your journal page. Your birds may not have been pollinators in the true sense of the word, but your page was so beautiful, anyway. Thanks for sharing this inspiring entry with us at Art Journal Journey using Matilde's theme.
Sorry to read about the bees. You are having the worst luck with bees, but the learning curve you are experiencing is teaching us all more about bees than we knew before.
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