.sketchbook wednesday.

Found my sketchbook!!!

.beginning beekeeping pt.2.

Last Sunday (yes a week ago - what do you want I'm very very busy and sleepy) I had my second segment of Beginning Beekeeping with the Northeastern Kansas Beekeeping Association.  Like the first segment, it was terribly interesting, very well put together and I learned a lot.
Like how I learned that there is absolutely no way I have enough time to take care of bees.
And even if I did, I still have nowhere to put them.

Most of the class was focused on bee diseases and pests and Pest Management - not eradication, management. Though sometimes pest management with bees means eradicating your bees - otherwise known as burning your hives, bees and all.
Though sometimes it just means covering your bees with powdered sugar, which sounds hilarious.

I also came to the conclusion that if anyone was ever thinking about keeping bees that it's really imperative that they take a class first. I've read a lot about bees in the last two months, subscribed to blogs and podcasts - and I learned way more in these classes than I ever would have managed to take in on my own. And I made beekeeper contacts to pester when I come up with more silly questions.

Now if I can just find a beekeeper who will sell me their winter die-off bees, I'd really be on a roll.

.adventures in bee keeping. pt.1

In 2010 I was working in my garden when I saw what I thought was a Silver Bee. The following summer I saw it again, several times and wanting to know What It Was, spent two weeks trying to take a picture of it. This is the only really clear shot I got.
Come two years later, and I've finally figured out that it's probably a Mason Bee, and the entire reason I couldn't find any information on "silver bees" is because it's color it referred to as blue.

One of the things I'm going to start focusing in on in my paintings (hopefully to expand to sculpture once I figure out what I'm doing) is bees - particularly honey bees and their importance to Life As We Know It.  In an effort to thoroughly educate myself on the subject, i signed up for a Beginner Beekeeping class - guessing that if anyone I had access to would know everything about bees, local beekeepers would be high on that list.
The class is two days - about four hours each day and this past Sunday was my first taste of Things I Found Out I Didn't Really Know Anything About At All - most glaringly Bee Swarms, and how to assemble a Bee Hive which looks like way more work and trouble than I ever though possible for what is essentially a bug house.
Also, buying bees is really expensive - way out of my price range, so unless someone gifts me with a hive and bee package, the likelyhood of me learning about beekeeping first hand is....small.
A few gems from my class notes:

Bees will very seldom chew through ducktape.

The only thing you can't control is the weather.

Don't put your beehive in a pasture with a bad bull in it.

They have wings for a reason.

Once they make up their mind where they're going, they're gone.

.sketchbook wednesday.