The subject of my letter will be a brief look at the part of our property which is a small apiary. Keeping it and observing the work of bees has been my husband's passion for several years.
Beginnings of the apiary
The first bees came to an empty hive in the garden on our wedding day. Twenty-five years have passed since then. Back then, it was an unusual gift for us and a harbinger of family happiness. A few years ago, my husband helped an old lady to look after the bees, and then he had an idea to build decorative hives for his own apiary.
Decorative beehives
Every year a new, beautiful hive is created, inhabited by the bee family
and which is the decoration of the apiary and the entire property. The passion for DIY has accompanied my husband for many years. So far he has made a great many planes, ships and ships, a carriage and a locomotive. Finally, it's time to create decorations in the garden and apiary. Building a hive is a laborious activity. It even lasts several months, so usually only one is produced a year. The first bee house made was a "dugout" made of an old tree trunk. It was decorated with a bas-relief of a kitten. Why? Those who are privy to the mysteries of beekeeping know that sometimes (especially in autumn), mice, looking for places to winter, eagerly visit beehives. A miniature of a cat is supposed to stop uninvited guests.The next beehives made were miniatures of real buildings: the unfortunately already demolished family home of my husband in Domanice, the manor house in Siedmiorogowo and the palace in Zimnowoda. That is why each hive, in addition to its aesthetic and practical values, also has a sentimental value for us.It is a part of Wielkopolska transferred to the Lublin region.
Execution of hives
- We start creating a hiveby completing a photograph of a given object. They must represent all sides of the facade accurately. Based on the photographs, we make sketches with the dimensions marked on a scale so that ordinary Warsaw frames for a bee colony can fit inside. After making the calculations and dimensioning the entire hive, we buy the necessary materials.
- Outer wallsare made of waterproof chipboards with holes for windows cut out. Then colorful glass and additional decorations will be glued to them.
- We turnouter walls and the hive floor.
- We makeinternal walls from natural, non-impregnated wood. For this purpose, we use wood paneling, which we put on the entire street.
- We use cut straw (chaff) insulation between the walls. It is the best undersuit, and also maintains adequate humidity inside . In order for the whole to be aesthetic and tight, we nail the wooden finishing strips where needed.
- The last stageof hive formation is the roof. If it is simple - the skeleton is made of wooden slats and boards. When the hive is assembled (it has a lot of attic), we weld its structure from delicate steel profiles. Only then do we install the cover. It is usually felt or sheet metal.
- To make the street look like the original building , we don't forget about the details. We choose the right paint colors to paint the walls. We make ornaments: lanterns, roof cornices and small sculptures. If necessary, we attach, for example, solar lighting on the manor terrace, which looks really impressive after a sunny day in the evening.
Working on making bee hives gives us great satisfaction. We know that bees feel very good in them, because they pay back their diligence by providing us with delicious honey.
Małgorzata Woźniak
