Native Bees

I found out about native bees many years ago and have been a little obsessed with them. We have planted lots more flowering plants and I have planted a small vegetable garden with flowers in between each crop.

Two years ago I started making a dedicated bee garden and we bought our first stingless bee hive from a local man who really knows his stuff! His hives are so well made and they look lovely in our garden.

Tetragonula Hockingsi

Then a few months later we bought our second hive in a huge log, to go in our completed bee garden - next to the chicken coop. (I love my crazy paving using random bricks and pavers)

Left to Right - Tetragonula Hockingsi, Austroplebeia

Then last year I extended the bee garden across where the chickens were so I could make room for yet another hive!

Left to Right - Tetragonula Hockingsi, Tetragonula Carbonaria, Austroplebeia

And then, once the hives are full I can add an empty hive to the front and hopefully end up with a new hive. This is called an eduction, the other way is to split the hive.

The bee garden has also become my orchid garden as they both enjoy shady summers and more sun in winter. I have shade cloth over this area that I remove once the weather cools down.

Pillowcases

I made pillowcases for our nieces, nephews and little siblings for their birthdays last year. It was actually the first time I was so organised since I made them all at the same time! I read a few tutorials but found it easier to just grab one of my pillowcases to copy. Obviously buying a pillowcase works out cheaper, but these are all fabrics I chose for each child based on what I thought they would like. Lucky for online shopping as I couldn't find the ninja turtles or pokemon fabric in a store near me. It was worth the wait as those two were so happy when they opened their presents!

King Quail

So I absolutely adored raising my chicks and wish we could have a rooster where we live so I could raise them over and over! Since caring for and breeding quails are similar to chickens, and they aren't classed as poultry, I decided to breed them instead. 

I experimented with incubating them and allowing their parents to incubate naturally. I sold lots of pairs but most people want females so I ended up with a lot of males and no more space since each clutch of males needed their own cage. I ended up selling my breeding pairs and now have around 15 males running together in the bottom of  "the quail shed". I have to say it is so much easier to have them on the concrete floor rather than having to clean a million cages, and they don't fight as bad now that they can get away from each other and have more room to run around and burn off that excess energy.

Let's face it, quails don't use all that space in the top of the cage so why not add finches! Most of them were given to me as they were special needs or disabled. Once I put all the quails on the floor of "the quail shed" I moved all the finches into one big cage, but still in the shed as it is mouse proof.

I had loads of fun raising them, but king (button) quails are not as friendly as chickens, they will snatch mealworms from my fingers, but they don't want to be petted, picked up or cuddled. The boys are between 2 and 3 years old so I don't have plans for more quail breeding for a long time!

Stamped gift tags

Isn't it great that there are so many beautiful colouring books for adults now? I have always preferred to colour in rather than create the actual drawing. Seeing them everywhere made me decide it was a great time to pull out my stamps and restock my supply of gift tags.

This time I chose to use my watercolour pencils for colouring in, once it is fully dry I use a gel ink pen to redo the outline

Because I used recycled cards I dipped the pencils directly into the water so the colour would show up better. You can blend with a wet paintbrush but I still tend to use a wet pencil for blending.