It's a Bug's Life on Session 4 of Sunshine Days at Crossroads Farm

The fourth and final session of Sunshine Days at Crossroads Farm was all about the bugs and their habitats. Some of today's fun activities included learning a little about our own honeybees, painting egg carton bees, constructing an insect hotel, and making window greenhouses and bird feeders. We certainly enjoyed a most gorgeous last day together outside on the farm!

There's always something interesting going on at the farm; so, to start our day, we took a walk around the farm to see what was happening. We checked out all the vegetables we have growing and then paid a visit to the animals. LUCKILY, Suzi (one of our farmers) was in the coop feeding our chickens. She opened up the coop to let some of us in to feed and pet them.

After our walk we were all settled in to begin today's farm fun. Because we had several activites planned, we split into two groups. Some worked on building an insect hotel while others stayed on the patio to paint egg carton bees.

These future hotel architects and designers worked on this project for almost their entire time here!

After such diligent work and a forced lunch/water break, here was the finished hotel:

This is now the trendiest location for some insect R&R at the farm!

The other half of our group made beautiful bees out of egg cartons. BUT, the artistry didn't stop there; the artists continued to paint out their farm inspired creativity on paper. Here they were staying--and looking--cool in the shade:

While the architects continued to work on the insect hotel, our artists moved on to other activities. We made window greenhouses to take home, bird feeders for the farm, and sun tea to enjoy with our lunch.

Here was our herbal "sun tea" as it brewed in the sun. We just added a touch of honey and put it in the refrigerator to cool down before lunch time.

The bird feeders were fun to make and easy to do. We took bagel halves, spread on some vegetable shortening, and rolled them in bird seed.

These are sure to be a hit among our family of plovers who call our compost field home.

And, with just a few green bean seeds and a wet paper towel, these window greenhouses will be sprouting and ready to transplant in no time!