The Bird and The Bees

     Hi everyone. Happy Sunday to you. I hope the new month is going well for you.

    Today I am joining Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room and I'm also joining Gillena for her Sunday Smiles.  I'll also be linking  up my art piece to Mia's Birds challenge at Art Journal Journey.

   On this page I used various colored paints in the background. I also stenciled some leaves and added some black dots with a Sharpie. There's also some white paint pen and Sharpie dots too.  Then I added a tissue paper image, which I did not like.  But that  was an easy fix. I have my very old bird book from a college Vertebrate Zoology lab where one of the things we had to do was identify some birds. It's quite outdated in some ways (since I graduated from college in the early 1980's), so I am chopping it up for art when I need bird pictures. It seems a shame to chop up a good book, but it is now getting some use at least. 👍

   I cut out the crow and covered up the misfortune with the tissue paper. I added a piece of painted lace to give him a place to stand. And then I cut apart a paper frame and used 2 corners of it to finish off my page. I'm quite happy with the results now. 😏

   Last week one day I set up a second beehive since later this week I have another box of bees being shipped. I wanted to air out the unused  hive.  I've tried for 4 years to get a second box going, and for several various reasons, I have never had any luck or success. One year those bees in the second hive even combined with the bees I already had.

   This year I'm hoping things will work out. 👍🤞🤞🤞

  When I set up the new hive box the other day, I went into my old hive to give it a good go through.  I was surprised to find the top box was really loaded with honey. 

   Look at the capped (the white) honey on this frame.  The other side was just as full.  All 10 frames in this box were like this. Either the bees ignore this honey all winter (which I doubt) or they have been very very busy lately.

   You can also see below that the bees were expanding their combs upward. It was time for another box.

    I added another smaller honey super on top. I hope it fills up with honey so I can remove it and take the honey, and then, since it is still very early in the season, I can put another box on top for the bees. I haven't had this situation before because usually at this time of year the hive is pretty depleted. That's one thing I love about beekeeping, the bees keep throwing new situations at me, and I am always learning new things.

   Plus you might think I'm weird, but I find watching the bees very interesting and very relaxing. I don't usually even suit up anymore, but I do have to really relax completely. If I'm relaxed, the bees basically ignore me, and I can stand there and watch them for a while too.

   I'll let you know how the second box goes. Until then, I hope you have a honey of a day- grin.