Hive Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone who voted in our contest!

Here are our lovely and talented winners! The photo and descriptions below are from Cary Haycox, the art teacher.

"The winners are left to right:

Anna Kalarski (pink card: 2nd place, #3, flower power)

Caitlyn McClain (yellow card: 3rd place, #5, hexagon)

Tori Fields (blue card: 1st place - #8, stripes)

 

The guys in back from left to right:

Cary Haycox (Visual Art Teacher)

Mr. Tommy Gunn (HA Headmaster)

and you know the big guy

 

Please let Mark know the honey was a huge success and everyone that tried it, really enjoyed it.  I let some students spoon some from my bottle and wound up going home with a third of it gone."

 

One idea Cary had for next year is giving students the option of painting one board, or working with a group to pain an entire super, as apparently some felt intimidated by so much space to fill. For our pilot project, I think the students did a beautiful job -- I couldn't be more pleased. Thanks, Cary, and HA students!

The number of supers on the front porch is dwindling, but our family's favorites will likely be the last to go out to the bee yards. I'm considering swiping one to put out by our driveway and turn it into a flower box, but I don't know if my husband would appreciate that!

Heritage Academy Art Project

We are *so excited* about the fantastic works created by the artists at Heritage Academy. Mark wants to do some sort of contest, voted on by followers, and guess who is supposed to figure out how to make that happen? Yes, that would be me.

In the meantime, here are some photos of the hive boxes they painted. Bear in mind that many of them have 4 completely different designs, one per side. Our thanks to the students at HA, and to their teacher, Cary Haycox for a job very well done. The Ducks Unlimited box is already promised to Guy Ray, the host of our Delta bee yard, and we put one of the boxes out with the new swarm Saturday morning.

Don't worry, each side has a different team.

I love this flower so much!

Serious blending skills!

Love these bubbles! Excellent shading, too!

Flowers make me happy!

I wonder if Mr. Haycox looks at these and says, "Someone was actually paying attention when we studied Jackson Pollock!"

Very, very cool.

Hi there! Welcome to the front porch!

The more, the merrier!

Update on the Hive Painting Project at Heritage Academy

Mark talked to Cary today, to see when he could pick up the hive bodies. We knew they'd been on display last Monday night during an open house event, and we'd planned to attend . . . but we were sitting in a broken down pickup waiting on a tow truck in Alabama.

But I digress.

Apparently, the hives are so popular that the teachers at Heritage  want to keep them around a while longer as decorations in the hallways. There's another open house coming up, and we hope to make it to that one.

Mark's been contacted by two local newspapers about feature stories, so he's excited. We hope to be able to post pictures soon! I can't wait to see what the students have created.

Keeping Bees in Hong Kong

Over at Global Swarming Honeybees, there's a link to a video about a bee keeper in Hong Kong.  The video is beautifully done, and makes me incredibly grateful I live in an area of the world with clean air, clean water, and no light pollution.

Urban beekeeping is growing in popularity. In the U.S., there are so many yards, gardens, balconies with plants, and green spaces, that bees often do well as long as keepers take precautions. These include checking local ordinances, using a high wall to direct bee traffic up and away from neighbors, and having a water source to keep the bees out of the neighbor's swimming pool.

What I love about the video from Hong Kong: using a tea kettle to pour wax into candle molds and the hive construction with the pop-open/pop-closed entrance.  Clever.

Painting Hive Bodies

Last night while I was home alone, I finally painted two hive bodies Mark allowed me to have. I couldn't find any real brushes for the first one (Bloom), so it's not as well done as I'd like. I was using one of those sponges on a stick. Out of frustration, I went through what felt like every drawer in the house until I found some actual paint brushes. I'm more pleased with the second one (Shine). Most importantly, I had fun and relaxed. It reminded me of being in high school, getting home on Thursdays and telling Mom, "I'm not going to art class tonight. I'm too tired." She'd say, "You are going to class because you're cranky!" I'd always feel better when I went. These hives in no way indicate that I had skill 20 years ago. Maybe Mark will let me have more so I can practice!


In bee-related news, Mark filled the feeders on Hives 4 & 5 on Sunday afternoon while I canned jam. On Monday, he looked for a frame of eggs to put in Hive 1 so they could grow their own queen, but had no luck finding eggs. Apparently they're reducing their laying in anticipation of the coming cool weather. So, the problem of Hive 1 remains unsolved. It's bugging Mark that we might lose that hive -- it's loaded up with bees, by far the largest population. He was told that some hives simply won't take a queen other than one they raise themselves, but the queen they had was one we introduced because the original queen was in the tree. So we'll look again this weekend for eggs and hope we can find something they can turn into a queen they'll accept, or, in lieu of that, we hope we'll see eggs in Hive 1, meaning there is a queen and she's laying.

Heartwood

Back in the beginning, when we first started investigating bee keeping, we talked to Carl Haaland, the father of one of my best friends, Marie. She'd told me he was bringing her a hive he'd built, a top bar hive, and that he'd mentioned a trip to Mississippi.

We talked to Carl, and found out that he had researched cypress wood, and that Heartwood in Star, MS was going to be his destination if he could get to MS from Texas. To be honest, I was more excited about seeing Carl than seeing any hives.

Little did I know, Heartwood has so much more than "cypress." True, they have the best value (read: least expensive) cypress boards for bee hives you can buy if you're prepared to assemble them yourself. However, they are the only, I repeat, the only remaining birdhouse manufacturer in the United States. For that reason alone, I wish everyone would give them business. It turns out they're also a household name in some parts of the country for the sheer architectural splendor of their birdhouses. Trust me, you haven't seen a birdhouse until you've see The Barrington. They also have butterfly, ladybug, and bat houses.

So, if you want to put less money and more sweat equity into constructing your first bee hive, you'll want to check out Heartwood, though hives aren't listed on their Web site. It's worth the call. Or if you want a "Made in America" gift for the person who has everything, check out their other products.

For the record, Mark has made at least two trips to Heartwood without me. He has *not* returned with The Barrington. Or the Copper Songbird Deluxe. Or even the modest Bungalow, pictured below.

Picture used without permission, from the Heartwood Web site. Please don't tell on me. I'm desperate, deprived of a birdhouse of my own.