Sunday, May 12, 2013

Bees.

 We have bees again!
Wait - did I even make it known we had no bees? Probably not?
Well, we didn't. Not since early winter (November?). Last year's hives weren't super healthy heading into fall and then they collapsed and disappeared into the wind. *poof* 
It happens. Like, a lot. 
On the plus side though, the husband got the remaining honey out of there before it was robbed by other bees so we got double the honey we would have had. (Fall harvest + all of the honey he had originally left for them to winter on.) And it's some of the best tasting honey ever. I was going through a little jar a week for awhile and then my pants stopped fitting well so I, uhhhh, had to stop eating honey. lol

On the boo-boo side, buying two more boxes of bees is $$$ and they aren't giving off particularly 'robust' signs so far. Grrr. Hopefully they take though. *fingers crossed* 

The husband's birthday was last week and I made him a sign to put by his hives.
I think it came out pretty good seeing as 1) I'm no great shakes at painting and 2) it looked like ass right up til the very end. I just kept putting more layers until I got something that wasn't embarrassing. I thought for sure it was going to end up buried in the trash at some point. lol
So there was a black underlayer, then two applications where I did a mix of three red/reddish colors kinda scraped on*, transferred/drew in letters and stuff, painted that in stages, frowned at it a lot and made scrunchy faces, sanded the edges to bring out the black (which you can't see here), speckled it in areas, little antiquing gel, and then, FINALLY, varnish. (Which would have been better matte but glossy is what I had on hand.) It doesn't photo very well but I'm quite impressed with myself actually, giving my lack of any real painting knowledge. Let us not ponder it too deeply though because I have no explanation for why some bees have eyes, but not others, and only one has antennae. We'll call it artistic liberties.

I got him a couple of other things as well though, just to cover my butt in case the sign didn't work out - so he made out pretty well. :)

*Lake Girl Paints has a paint 'scrape' post where you use CARDSTOCK - no brush needed! - to basically shove paint onto things. It's pretty neat. And an awesome blog all around.

Spring has been quite nice here. MUCH drier and sunnier than normal. I don't remember the last time I've gotten in this much 'sitting on the deck time' so early in the year. And, thankfully, there are lots of flowers around to help the new bees build up their new homes.

Hope everyone is having a nice Mother's Day. :)



13 comments:

Cole said...

I think the sign looks great! Hopefully you have a hearty batch that will thrive this year!

Maggie said...

Wow, i think your sign looks great,I can't paint or draw, so I'm mightily impressed :-)

I hope you have a hive of activity this year :-)

Anonymous said...

Hope your bees *take*. I'll be that home grown honey is pretty terrific.

Glad you are having a good spring. We are already into summer weather here. It is in the 90s today.

Annie said...

Perfect sign and a great bithday gift. Hope the new bees cooperate.

Interesting painting technique on that blog. Some people are so clever with crafty DIY goodness.

Vickie said...

I just think beekeeping is so neat. You did a fabulous job on the sign.

Margaret said...

Oh my gosh. Bees. Oh my. I know bees are good and I love honey, but oh my. lolol! Good luck with the new bees. Lovely sign you made! Aren't you enjoying the spring? It's been wonderful so far! I hope it lasts!

Kenzie said...

Did you see the article where they announced that 1/3 of the national bee population died over the winter? Scary stuff. I hope yours do well!

Beth said...

I hope your bees make it and thrive. I worry about our native bees - very scary. We too are having a wonderfully warm and sunny spring - very unlike Oregon...congrats on your bee project - artistic liberties only serve to make it unique!

Anne said...

Bees!! Bees are so important to our world, I love them so much. I hope your bees will be okay this year and make lots of honey and that they get busy and start to work. The sign you made is adorable!!

Julie said...

Fabulous sign, I hope the bees approve and all works out well for them. I looooove honey!

geeky Heather said...

LOVE the sign. Totally makes sense that the bees closer to the "camera," if you will, have eyes and the ones in the background don't...detail becoming more sparse as they get farther away. Or maybe those two are just REALLY surprised, LOL! And I think the bee with the antennae there must have had some "work" done...antennae extensions or something. What a diva. =)

Carol said...

Bees!! I had no idea you raised bees!! I sure hope this latest colony thrives... that whole bee colony collapse thing is so worrisome.

Your sign is adorable, Melanie!! You are too hard on yourself--you should see my attempts at drawing. I have no artistic talent whatsoever :)

Enjoy those sunny spring days on your deck--hope they continue. We had a bad frost last night--don't ever remember it being this cold in mid-May!

Dani - tkdchick said...

Bees are definitely interesting creatures!!!