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Read morethe Creativity of Bees
Our bees made this sculpture from bits of comb floating in honey placed in the hive to feed them over the winter.
Then we learned of a fundraiser for Parkinson's research held in Baker City, Oregon where curated salt licks are entered into an art contest with the winners auctioned off to the highest bidders. “Goats and deer are more realist,” [contest founder Whit Deschner] says. “Cows are more impressionist. The horses aren’t artistic at all.”
While the adjacent photo isn't attributed to a particular ungulate (guess it's not a horse, though), notice the striking similarity to our bees' work?
A nice reminder of how creative living creatures are when given space, time, and sound materials.
Character Building
This courtesy of The Female Farmer Project: From our friend Blair of Madstone Farm... "The tender absurdity of farmy mama [and grand-mama] multitasking. Can't say it is easy but I imagine it builds character on all our parts --bovine included."
To motherhood -- in its many farmy forms.
Easing The Bees Along
This is the winter hive insulation set-up a few years back. This winter they've got tarps wrapped round instead of hay bales. With a few supplemental dishes of honey (with crushed up comb to stand on), so far, so good!
We don't harvest the honey unless a hive doesn't make it, in which case there's a sweet side to the otherwise sad loss of hard-working lady friends.
Being bee guardians lets Capering Goat Dairy's organic garden (and every other pollinator-dependent plant everywhere), flourish.