What To Paint Bee Hive With

People have been creating intricately painted beehives for hundreds of years. It is a practical and fun way to brand hives into a form of garden art, as well every bit a great style to get children involved and teach them about the importance of bees.

Kim Lehman is the author of the fabled bookBeekeeper's Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive and she is here today to requite us the skinny on painting beehives. Kim'south book contains everything you need to know about beekeeping, with projects suitable for all ages.

How to Paint Beehives

By Kim Lehman

Beehives are a blank canvass just waiting for inspiration to strike. Choice upward a paintbrush and jazz upwards your apiary with one-of-a-kind creations.

Bee Fizz
Beekeepers in Slovenia have a long history of beautifully painted beehives going back over 250 years. Beehive painting originated both equally décor and with the conventionalities that brightly-colored hives would make it easier for bees to know where to get.

Fun for Kids

To practice this projection with kids, instead of exterior paint use nontoxic markers, tempera paint, chalk, crayons, or even mud for finger painting. Cover with a clear water-based sealer or repaint when weathered.

Design

Beginning past brainstorming pattern concepts for your hive. Here are some things to consider:

Will your hive accept a theme?
What images or subjects would yous similar to work with?
Do yous want to make a statement or express a thought or an opinion?
Would you like realistic artwork or an abstract design?
Do y'all prefer to pigment random and spontaneous shapes, colors, and patterns?
Will it be a group or family unit projection, with each person designing and painting one panel of the hive?

Planning

Be bold, big, and colorful with your design. Details are difficult to see from a altitude.
Sketch many different designs for the fine art hive on paper. Do not spend time on details. Choice out your favorites to further develop.
Choose the colors you will need. Blackness is great for outlines. Primaries (red, blue, and yellow) brand it possible to mix your own colors.

Materials

Pencil
Paper
Exterior latex paint
Acrylic craft paints
Paintbrushes in a diverseness of sizes
Polyurethane (optional)

Make it!

Completely embrace the hive with a base layer of exterior latex paint.
Lightly sketch the design on the hive using a pencil. Do non worry about putting the lines on perfectly.

Draw with your full arm, not just with your fingers.
If you are painting the outlines in blackness, do that commencement. Allow the pigment to dry. Go back and fill in with color. Acrylic paints dry a little slower and contain more pigment for better coverage. Exterior latex is much cheaper.
Paint away! If using acrylics, apply a protective polyurethane coat to the finished painting.

Take it Further

Make a collage past gluing photos and pictures onto the hive. Encompass with a protective polyurethane end.
Promote creative expression and honeybee sensation at a public event. Supply permanent markers for people to decorate a hive or write a message of gratitude to the bees or a beekeeping advocate.
Have a "Wild and Wonderful Beehive Tour" by displaying hives painted past local artists in public places, such as the library, city hall, grocery store, farmers' market, or other local businesses. Sale off the hives or bandage monetary votes as a fundraiser.

Reprinted with permission from Beekeeeper's Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive past Kim Lehman © 2017. Published by Quarry Books. Photography © Anna Gieselman.

About the Writer

Kim Lehman has been sharing the many benefits of honeybees, nature's tiny treasures, for over twenty-five years. Known as a dynamic educator, musician, and author, Kim has presented hundreds of programs at schools, libraries, museums, and nature centers. As part of her column for kids in Bee Culture Magazine, Kim began the Bee Buddies Club which now has members in every state. She founded the American Beekeeping Federation Kids and Bees Plan and directed this educational service about love bees for the public in 17 states. Check out her book Beekeeper'due south Lab: 52 Family unit-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive .