Last December my husband installed this knotty pine ceiling in the over hang of the barn. He spent many hours going up and down the ladder, measuring and cutting boards, then fitting them together and screwing them into place. It turned out beautiful!
We decided to put the ceiling in to keep nature out. Before the ceiling was put in the upstairs of the barn was not fully enclosed. There was about a six inch gap along the entire length of the barn. Not only did this gap allow cold air in it also made easy access for bugs and potentially even birds.
The rafters were exposed on the underside of the overhang making a tempting location for wasps to build nests, and the cedar box which encloses the front horizontal support beam was also open. This could have become a perfect nesting place for any number of birds or even a cozy place for raccoons to camp out.
While we have a great appreciation for all God’s creatures there are places we are not willing to share with them. Thus the ceiling served to keep these parts critter free.
Yesterday evening my husband worked at the farm staining bees hives, preparing them for the bees that will be arriving in a couple of weeks. After he had finished staining this hive he placed two flats of pansies on top to keep them protected from the heavy rains that were in the forecast.
This afternoon, as I went to move the pansies, look what I discovered. Despite our best efforts someone (bird) decided to make our barn their home.
Now there is no disputing that those pansies make a beautiful home, but this just isn’t going to work. The bee hive needed to be moved into the barn for now, but will soon be moved to the apiary where it will become home to some of our new honey bees.
I would be happy to donate this flat of pansies to these birds so that they could raise the next generation, but I am not sure that we have place to locate the flat that would make everyone happy.
Just shaking my head.
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Brilliant nest work, some seriously house proud birds 🙂
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The nest is beautiful. I will be posting a follow up soon.
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Lovely barn; beautiful ceiling. Poor pansies.
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Thanks Anne. My husband found a nice location for the nest in a tree. I don’t know if any birds will use it but it’s there for them anyway.
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Hahah yep, not everything is meant to be shared with God’s critters and creatures! And oh wow, that’s an impressive nest for inside pansy planters! Guess they thought the pansies were pretty too 😉
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The nest is very impressive and we couldn’t believe how quickly they built it. Amazing!
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That is so cute! 💗
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Isn’t it – just sad that it couldn’t stay.
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That bird nest does look so pretty though nestled among the pansies!
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I thought so too. It would have been a lovely home.
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Beautiful work on the ceiling and the beehive–absolutely amazing!
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Thank you! and thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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Silly birds. Remember the Robin nest in the greenhouse? I was lucky to be able to leave it and watch the babies hatch and grow. Nature is so amazing.
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Now that you mention it I do remember that. I sure we would have enjoy watching babies hatch and grow. I suspect this nest was robins as well. I wonder if it’s their title as State Bird of Michigan that makes them feel that they own the place. LOL. They can be very intrusive.
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It is always amazing to me how quickly a bird can build a nest. We were excited the other day when we saw a barn swallow flying around. I have a feeling it was just a scout.
Love those pansies and I love that barn. The knotty pine is gorgeous!
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That is what surprised us Faye, how quickly they built it. We haven’t had barn swallows around – yet- but we just put up the barn last spring. When we put up the barn our builder told us that the bright red siding would stick out like a sore thumb. We told him we wanted to stand out. We are very happy with the way it turned out and have had many compliments from neighbors. I agree my husband did a beautiful job with the knotty pine.
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That is beyond adorable.
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Picture perfect – makes me a bit sad that they can’t stay there.
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The expression “any port in a storm” comes to mind here Ruth. The birds are persistent aren’t they? 🙂
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I wonder had much the (rainy) weather impacted their decision to build there. I can imagine them saying “lets get this built quickly while no one is around.” LOL.
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You’re probably right Ruth. They needed somewhere to build out of the rain and you weren’t around. In the past, the robins have built a complete nest (move-in ready) in 24 hours. I would knock down the nest fixings and the next morning I’d go out for my walk, and a full nest, mud plastered to the light and all was in place. That is why I shoved the bags up there. It looks pretty bad but will remain in place until June now.
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