Hi everyone. I hope you're having a great weekend. It's already the last weekend of June, which doesn't seem at all possible, does it?
Thanks everyone for your bee questions and comments. When I open the hives I do use a smokers, but I don’t suit up. I do suit up when I put in a new batch of bees because then you get so many flying around all confused. New bee packages contain 10,000-12,000 bees, and they all have to leave the package and get into the hive so there's a lot of bees in motion at once.
But usually when I go into the hive I don’t get all that many that fly out. Most of them stay inside the hive doing their job and some of them are off looking for pollen and nectar. Those bees are so busy they just ignore you. It’s just those few guard bees you have to be aware of. However, if you stay calm, you can usually just ignore them, or if they are really bugging me, I have a brush with soft bristles that I use to move bees inside the hive (when and if I need to move them), and I can also use that tool to brush the bees off of me.
And not to bore anyone with more bee photos or to give anyone the heebie jeebies, but the wild milkweed growing in my garden is now starting to flower and is attracting all kinds of bees, including my honeybees.
rather than going in and out the main hive entrance like the old hive does. Hmmmm.
Today I am joining Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room (SITAR) and also Gillena for her Sunday Smiles. I'm going to start off this art part of my post with my final page for Matilde's Houses and Buildings challenge at Art Journal Journey. Matilde's challenge runs through this Tuesday.
This page is part of a homemade journal that I used some music sheets in. Then I created this page on top of the sheet.
I used a small piece of textured paper for the house itself, and I also used a TH die cut yellow house block to create the roof. There is some of the yellow pieces underneath the textured paper. I outlined these with a Sharpie. Then I added a die cut butterfly on the roof. The window, flowers and snal are all punch out and/or fussy cut images from 49 and Market. The little white planting pot the flowers are in was a scrap on my table. It's actually from a Greek column die that I had used at some point.
The gentleman is also is TH die cut that's been sitting on my work table (the die has 3 of these men and I used the other 2 at some point). Then to finish my page I used a TH quote rubber-stamp and added a few small flat yellow beads.
In this next photo you can see the whole page within the journal.
And finally, a few views of all the milkweed and also the beehives. This is my wild garden area, and other than a tiny bit of fall and very early spring quick clean up, I don't do anything here. I just let nature take its own course, and occasionally someone gives me some plants and I might add them here because this area gets a lot of sun.
That's all for today. Have a great rest of your weekend and start to the new week.
26 comments:
I like the house/music combo and the accompanying text. There's a little bee puzzle for you--why they like to enter the way they do. :-)
What a coincidence! I sell high-quality honey from my home. The honey is genuine and pure, sourced directly from the forests of West Kalimantan.
Good afternoon from Indonesia
I love your bee stories! And your nature garden is really lovely. I bet your bee-kids love it!
Love to see all the happy bees, and to learn more. And hat house is a happy one - have a great Sunday, hugs!
I find the bees interesting even though I have no desire to beekeep.
I do like that layout. Now I think I need to create some hand cut houses for my altered book.
I am very encouraged to learn that native bees are foraging with your honey bees, Erika. All too often, native populations have been swamped., or there is insufficient food for them all. It’s good that you point out to people that bees seldom sting. People should always exercise caution and common sense around them, but irrational fear is unwarranted. Have a great Sunday. David
Such a charming and layered journal page! I love how you built the house from so many unexpected pieces, especially the recycled die cuts and little found elements. It all comes together beautifully against the music sheet background.
I enjoy hearing about the bees and the suit ups. I have a good friend and her hubby has them and she doesn't need to suit up however her hubby and his uncle often do. It's interesting to hear the differences bee keepers experience and I LOVE seeing the photos.
Very interesting bee share
And
Luv the house page
Happy Sunday, thanks for linking to SundaySmiles
Much love
The milkweed is very attractive to look at, but it is safe to touch?
I love the bee photos and the description of beekeeping. The music page background looks s happy with the butterfly and the gent. Enjoy the sunshine - CJ
You are an excellent gardener and beekeeper..and I always learn something new and interesting from you. Thank you, Erika, for taking time to answer my questions :-) The music note sheet as a background is a great idea.
Lovely journal page. I do like a wild garden area, mine is getting more wild every year as I do less and less in it
How many years before my milkweed flowers. This is the second year and they are in pots. No flowers so far this year or last.
I really like this final page you shared with AJJ. Maybe it's the butterfly or the bits of yellow you used. Regardless, it's a wonderful entry for Matilde's theme.
Hallo Erika,
ein sehr interessanter Beitrag. Ich hatte als junge Frau auch Bienen. 30 Völker, mal mehr, mal weniger. Natürlich schaue ich gern deine Bilder an. Vieles ist bei dir ganz anders als ich es kenne. Danke für den interessanten Blogbeitrag.
...our milkweed is flowering, which is great, but it also means that the year has gone by quickly.
I'm glad to hear that the bees mostly leave you alone. It's interesting to learn something new.
I love bees, they are important to our environment. Your photos are beautiful and I love the music piece illustrations as well.
I appreciate the posts you share on bees and your photos are a great complement to your posts.
That is a lovely journal page.
Always interesting to read about your bees.
Enjoy the remainder of Sunday and have a good new week ... July will be here before we know it !!!
All the best Jan
I always enjoy your bee updates.
The milkweed blooms must be a joy to watch with all that buzzing activity. Your house page is delightful too, especially the way you layered scraps into something so charming.
Your last two posts make me want to get bees again! I always wore a suit and more often than not got stung by a bee that somehow got inside the suit. I think it was more of a case of the bee getting stuck and panicking than it really being aggressive and wanting to sting me. Maybe suitless is the way to go as there is no place for it to get pinched or trapped?
Bees can be such good friends!
I enjoy reading about your bees every time, so please go on doing that. And I love your wild garden. My own garden isn't a manicured garden at all - I do some clean up though which mostly consists of cutting plants back in the spring and, most of all, weeding and removing invasive plants. But other than that I don't do much except enjoying it and watching the insects, native bees and birds. Have a good week! Hugs - Carola
What a wonderful area you have for your bee hives. Always love your bee info. Also love your creativity with the journal page. Thanks for another interesting post Erika, and hope you'll all be staying cool this week.
Thanks for sharing another interest post Erika, the unusual plant up top is something I've never come across in the UK.
B x
I never get bored with seeing the bees. My milkweed seeds haven't come up. Maybe it's too cold here. Yours are lovely. Full of Wonder is so imaginative. Very beautiful. Thank you for sharing with SITAR.
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