"The obedience of a novice" - Pavel Ryzhenko

I found this painting posted at Uncertain Times this morning.  It took a bit of searching, but I tracked down the title - "Obedience of a novice" - and the artist - Pavel Ryzhenko, a modern (b. 1970) Russian artist and professor at the Russian Arts Academy, who "specializes in historical and religious paintings."

I'm most curious about the activity portrayed.  I see a bent tree (which under other circumstances could be a "marker tree" designating a  trail, but not in the middle of an orchard) against which lies an axe.  Some limbs have been trimmed off - to what purpose?  It's not an effort to remove the tree, which could be easily accomplished more directly.  Young trees get bent if they are leaned on by falling deadwood or heavily laden with winter ice; it must have happened some years ago to have the branches emerging from the horizontal segment in a vertical orientation.   I get the sense that this tree has been fashioned like this for some practical purpose.

The trees in the ?cherry orchard are painted white to waist level, and the novice appears to be in the process of doing so.  Is it the application of a pest repellant?  Or does it have a religious significance?

The items on the ground in the orchard are presumably related to the ?Russia Orthodox religion.  Perhaps they help explain what's going on.

It's a most interesting painting that tells a story - but I can't decipher what the story is.

Addendum:  A hat tip to Ariston, who identified the objects in the background as beehives.  Here's an example from the Troitsky Monastery.