Make a Native Bee Nesting Sculpture

There are a variety of ways to nurture native bees in our gardens. I like to combine native bee nesting units into sculptural designs. This one starts with galvanized steel roof flashing and plastic plumbing tubing.   

Fist, I cut a piece of the plastic tube to be just a little longer that the cardboard nesting tubes that can be purchased from Crown Bees. I cut a paper pattern to guide the design of flower petals. 

I used this to cut petals from galvanized steel.

I fashioned the first layer of petals around the plastic tube.

Using the paper pattern, I cut additional layers of petals and leaves. They were epoxied them to the sculpture.

I used a pointalism technique to paint the sculpture with exterior house paint. We installed our Bee Nest Sculpture on a tree near our pollinator garden. We filled the cone with nesting tubes.

Bee - Utiful Garden

 

Make your backyard more bee-utiful this spring!

https://conservingcarolina.org/habitat-at-home-a-bee-utiful-backyard/ 

For many, the ideal spring garden is colored with blooming flowers and and filled with the busy sounds buzzing of bees. Have you ever thought about what kinds of bees those might be? You might imagine honey bees or bumble bees, but did you know there are hundreds of native bee species in North Carolina alone?! In this month’s Habitat at Home, learn about some of our lesser-known native bees and what you can do to bring these docile, beneficial pollinators to your garden.

More Than Honey Bees

North Carolina is home to hundreds of native bees – and the honey bee isn’t one of them! In fact, the honey bee we know and love is originally from Europe! Most native bees here in WNC are solitary bees, or bees that live alone instead of living in a hive.

The mason bee and the leaf cutter bee are good examples of native solitary bees. These species of bees cannot build their own tunnels, instead laying their eggs in pre-existing tunnels in wood. In the wild these tunnels are made by other insects, but humans can provide ‘bee hotels’ by drilling holes in wood pieces and placing them in the garden, or fitting together even pieces of bamboo. Both mason bees and leaf cutter bees can be found in North Carolina, and are likely to visit a ‘bee hotel’ if you build one! Using mud or cut leaves, these bees will create compartments to lay individual eggs, leaving them to grow up on their own. Leaf cutter bees even create a ‘wallpaper’ using leaves to protect their eggs from moisture in the wood.

Butterfly Garden

For several months, I have been creating sculptural butterfies from galvanized steel flashing. They are painted with exterior housepaint, so they can live indoors or out in your garden. I sell them for $100 plus the cost of shipping and handling. They are living all over the world. You can see them in our Forrest Dweller Sculpture Garden in Fearrington Village, NC. This collection will be featured in the 2019 North Carolina Botanical Garden Sculpture in the Garden Show beginning in September. If you are interesting in learning more about my butterflies, email me at fgreenslade@nc.rr.com or call be at 919-545-9743.

Here is a sampling:

Adonis Blue

American Copper

Atlas Moth

Banded Orangre

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Bue Morpho

California Sister

Black and Orangr

Dead Leaf

Lime Swallowtail

Luna Moth

Monarch

Painted Lady

Purple Admiral

Red Admiral

Add caption

Sleepy Orange

Spicebushush Swallowtai

Sulphur

Tiger Swallowtail

Zebra Swallowtail

BeeLeive It Or Not

I had made a series of boxes to serve as native bee nesting boxes. I decorated them with a folk art flower design. Some Mason Bees have taken advantage of them over the last couple of years. Carolina Wrens also liked them.

We noticed some saw dist on our deck and thought that Carpenter Bees were attacking the trim on the house. Then we noticed a bee fluttering around the painted flowers on the boxes.

Here is a cloce up of her on a flower.








Then, we were surprised to see that she had "drilled" a hole through the very center of one of the flowers. She was slithering in and out of the hole. She had made holes in the center of other painted flowers on the boxes.

We have never heard of this phenomenon.

I decided to add branch cuttings to the boxes. I painted similar flowers on the ends to see if the bees might make holes in them.

Stay tuned!

UNC Native Bee Sculptures Installed

The final step in the Fall 2016 Maker In Residence project was the installation of the student sculptures in the Coker Arboretum and the Community Garden.




Coker Arboretum curator Margo MacIntyre worked with me to display sculptures in trees near the arbor entrance of the garden.







Annie McDarris' little flower 














Ritam Chakraborty's "trompe l'eoil" tree branch










Nissa Coit's remembrance of Alice in Wonderland









Community Garden  staff and volunteers pause in their labors to pose with Zachary Gonzales' bright flower sculpture

Zac's piece 
















Sarah Wright's colorful balloon. Sarah volunteers at the Community Garden 
















Laurina Bird's abstract form












Helina Wolf also went abstract and finished her sculpture in bright yellow












Nancy Dianderas' "Curious" owl












Liza Zhytkova's Aztec sun god 














Zita Voros' tarnished bronze flower













We are blessed to have these excellent botanical gardens in our UNC community. Visit the Coker Arboretum and the Community Garden to see these creative student sculptures.

UNC Maker Capstone Event

Students at the Bee Fair in the Makerspace in Murray Hall 

Our Maker in Residence project on Native Bee nesting sculptures held a Capstone Event for participants to demonstrate their works and explain what they had learned about native bees to fellow undergraduate students.

They set up stations and talked about a variety of issues related to native bee biology, including:

-the sculpture process;

-the difference between honey bees and native bees;

-native bee nesting behaviors;

-the dangers of insecticides to bees;

-direct and indirect threats of human activity to bees;

-the importance of bees to food production.

They set out a delicious array of snacks for their visitors.

Student leader Isaac Boulter offering refreshments

NC State entomologist Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt, who had given a presentation on native bee biology during the course, had a bee display.

She even brought some live bumble bees.

Claire Lorch, who directs the UNC Community Garden, informed students of the activities of the garden. The student sculptures will be on display there over the winter and spring. Here she shows Sarah Wright's piece. Sarah volunteers at the Community Garden.

Student Leader Abby Gancz and Brooke Kilker from the Community Garden at the Garden display.

Zachary Gonzales with his sculpture. Zac left his piece with the original aluminum surface, and adorned it with bees that were produced on the Makerspace 3D printer.

Laurina Bird created an abstract form and coated it with a tarnished bronze patina.








Helina Wolf also went abstract and finished her sculpture in bright yellow.

















Nancy Dianderas made a "Curious" owl, which she finished with multiple tarnish bronze and acrylic touches.

Annie McDarris sculpted a brightly colored flower.

Liza Zhytkova conjured up an Aztec sun God

Nissa Coit remember Alice in Wonderland with this fanciful creation with a tarnished bronze surface and a wood message made on the Makerspace laser cutting machine.

Ritam Chakraborty experimented with "trompe l'eoil" with this tree branch finished with extensively tarnished bronze

Finally Zita Voros created this tarnished bronze flower. She is shown here wearing the T-shirt that she designed for the participants of the Fall 2016 Resident Maker Project

As the Maker in Residence, I am so grateful to the UNC staff,

the student leaders and most of all the students who made this one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.








Thanks so much,
 Forrest