Heather Ainsley
ECB Publishing, Inc.
On Saturday, May 13, local business, Starling Musings, partnered with GrannyKat's Apiary and Bee Learning Center to offer a unique and creative art project workshop to the Monticello community. Artists were welcomed and encouraged to reserve a seat in the gallery during Monticello Second Saturday celebrations to create their very own works of art. But unlike most of the classes and workshops offered by Starling Musings gallery, artists weren't painting on paper or canvas; during this workshop, guests painted beehives.
The beehives belong to GrannyKat's, a local beekeeping business that is highly dedicated to educating the public about the importance of bees. After a few layers of white primer, the bee boxes were loaned to Starling Musings to be decorated before becoming the brand new homes to 10 waiting colonies of bees.
Over the years, scientists have discovered that bee vision is incredibly complex. Not only are they capable of seeing a wider range of colors than we humans, they can recognize differences in color up to five times faster than us, making searching for specific flowers for nectar a breeze for them. Studies have shown that because of their incredible vision, painting hives in varying colors and patterns can offer the bees some unexpected advantages and can even help prevent something called drift.
Drift refers to the movement of bees among different colonies. Typically, each colony has its own specific pheromone that is shared by every bee within that colony and keeps strangers away. There are often bees present at the entrance to each hive that serve as guards, inspecting all incomers and challenging those individuals that seem to be from a different colony. Should a bee get lost or turned around, it is possible for them to negotiate their way into an established hive if they possess enough resources to offer to the colony.
When bee boxes are set out in straight lines, and are all the same color, drifting is more common. While the trade-off of one or two bees to different colonies may not seem a huge problem (after all colonies are made up of thousands of bees), wandering bees can spread illness, diseases and parasites to a healthy colony, and this can be a huge problem that beekeepers want to avoid if possible. Painting beehives different colors and patterns, as well as situating the boxes to face different directions and using orientation markers near the hives can help minimize drift.
The artists at Starling Musings were busy as bees adding their own creative expressions to the new bee boxes. By the end of the evening, all ten of the new hives were decorated with unique, colorful patterns and designs. All of the boxes were returned to GrannyKat's Apiary, where several new colonies waited to move in.
The move in process takes a little time, but very soon, all of the new colonies will be right at home, and all the beautiful designs will be on display in the bee yard at the apiary. Don't miss out on your chance to see these wonderful new hives by stopping at GrannyKat's, which is located at 407 Industrial Park in Monticello. They are open Fridays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. For more information about bees, contact them at (850) 997-1947. For more information about upcoming art events at the gallery, contact Starling Musings at starlingmusings@
gmail.com.