bees-msg – 5/1/05
Period beekeeping. Notes on beekeeping now.
NOTE: See also the files: bees-Markham-art, Beekeeping-AS-art, honey-msg, Pest-Control-art, basketweaving-msg, candles-msg, mead-msg, meadery-list-msg.
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This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: trifid at agora.rain.com (Roadster Racewerks)
Date: 9 May 91 00:14:49 GMT
Organization: Open Communications Forum
How old is the traditional STRAW beehive? You know, the round "beehive shaped"
domed one? I have seen the real thimng, even though you usually only see them in
pictures, and it's made by tightly bundling straw in long bundles about 1.5 inch
thick, and coiling it around, sewing it together, until it makes a sort of tiny
straw igloo for bees. I am of the impression this is quite old, but haven't
looked it up yet.
Elaine NicMaoilan
From: whheydt at PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Date: 9 May 91 15:36:13 GMT
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
dmb at inls1.ucsd.edu (Doug Brownell) writes:
>Greetings unto the Rialto from Thomas Brownwell,
>
>Milord Olafr Thordarson asks:
>>I don't think modern beehives were invented until quite late.
>
>The show didn't describe previous attempts to keep
>bees stationary, but the implication was that it was hard if
>not impossible to domesticate them without providing them
>with suitable living conditions. I can certainly envision an
>industrious and brave person getting a hive started but it
>wasn't common.
A good beginning book on beekeeping will have a historical section
showing the tradional artificial hives. Probably the best known is
the straw skep. That's the "beehive" shaped sort of basket-ish
looking thing. If you go through your copy of _Tres Riches Heures_,
(or similar works) you'll see examples. (At least I *think* I recall
seeing a skep in the background of one or more plates . . .)
Another technique is a section of hollowed out log.
What the modern hive provides is the means to get the honey out
without having to destroy the physical structure--and thus keeping the
same group of bees for an extended period.
It is trivially easy to get bees into a suitable home. Just put the
empty hive near a swarm of bees, and the odds are good taht they'll
move right in. Later, the hive can be moved to where you want it.
What's truly amazing is to see (literally) swarms of bees *walking*
into a hive.
Just an FYI item for all of you aout there . . . A swarm of bees is
particularly safe to be around (as compared to an occupied hive). The
bees are full (the "tank up", as it were, before swarming) and they
don't yet have a home to defend. It is quite easy to work with a
swarm without any protective gear, though a veil is still a good idea.
On a pratical level, one can work a hive with bare hands--but the
first time you do so takes a bit of nerve and it always takes
patience.
--Hal, who used to keep bees.
Hal Ravn, Province of the Mists, West Kingdom
Wilson H. Heydt, Jr., Albany, CA 94706, 415/524-8321 (home)
=======================================================================
Hal Heydt | Practice Safe Government
Analyst, Pacific*Bell | Use Kingdoms
415-823-5447 | (seen on a bumper sticker)
whheydt at pbhya.PacBell.COM |
From: STEVE.BOYLAN at office.wang.COM (Steve Boylan)
Date: 9 May 91 17:52:41 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Greetings once again from Stephen of the Summer Country.
I've kept quiet about the subject only from lack of success in my
research, but the topic keeps coming back and nobody else seems to
be having any luck digging up information, either!
Here's my dilemma - I KNOW that the domed straw beehive is centuries
old, but I can't find a reference that will tell me when that form of
hive became widespread or where it was used or what other types of hives
were common. Beekeeping extends far back into prehistory, and the basic
knowledge of the role of bees in pollination was understood far back in the
past, but I can't seem to find a good discussion of the history of the
art - only books on the modern hive, hive management, and keeping the
bees healty and productive.
Any academics out there have access to a good agricultural reference library?
Lord Taran - how about the Tufts veterinary library? Or anybody at Cornell?
Help!!
(Heavens - if I could find enough information, I'd be able to have an
authentic hive or two in my [projected for the somewhat distant future]
medieval garden!).
In hope of some assistance,
- - Stephen
Visitor to Carolingia
Kingdom of the East
Steve.Boylan at office.wang.com
From: DEGROFF at intellicorp.COM (Leslie DeGroff)
Date: 9 May 91 18:58:03 GMT
Organization: The Internet
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
To change topics, On bee's and bee keeping, someplace lost in
my memory I seem to remember something about ceramic pots for
hives, like the interesting post about straw hives it would
be a technology with in common and widespread technical reach.
From: vnend at phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Date: 9 May 91 21:11:50 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
STEVE.BOYLAN at office.wang.COM (Steve Boylan) writes:
)Here's my dilemma - I KNOW that the domed straw beehive is centuries
)old, but I can't find a reference that will tell me when that form of
)hive became widespread or where it was used or what other types of hives
)were common.
I seem to recall a medieval coat of arms that was three bee hives,
so they are certainly period.
)(Heavens - if I could find enough information, I'd be able to have an
)authentic hive or two in my [projected for the somewhat distant future]
)medieval garden!).
) Steve.Boylan at office.wang.com
I mentioned this topic to Seonaid a Lochbuie last night. She
recalls from her beekeeping class in college that this type of hive is
now illegal in the US, since it does not provide for examination for
disease in the hive. She also reports that they were made of rope as
well as the wound straw. You'll have to come up with something that
looks like the original but allows inspection, or use modern hives.
Kwellend-Njal
From: DRS at UNCVX1.BITNET ("Dennis R. Sherman")
Date: 10 May 91 17:40:00 GMT
Organization: The Internet
Search request: F TW BEEKEEPING
Search result: 210 records at all libraries
1. ADAM, Brother, O.B.E.
Bee-keeping at Buckfast Abbey : with a section on meadmaking. 1975
5. ADJARE, Stephen.
The golden insect : a handbook on beekeeping for beginners. 1984
22. BENTON, Ralph.
Practical beekeeping designed for the use of the beginner and small
apiarist;. 1907
24. BROWN, R. H.
One thousand years of Devon beekeeping. 1975
33. CHESHIRE, Frank Richard,...
Bees & bee-keeping; scientific and practical. A complete treatise on the
anatomy,... 1886
34. CHESHIRE, Frank Richard,...
Practical bee-keeping: being plain instructions to the amateur for the
successful... 1879
35. CLARK, Ed. H.
Constructive beekeeping,. 1918
40. CRANE, Eva.
The archaeology of beekeeping. 1983
41. CRANE, Eva.
Bees and beekeeping : science, practice, and world resources. 1990
45. CUMMING, John, 1807-1881.
Bee-keeping. 1864
47. DADANT, C. P. 1851-1938.
Dadant system of beekeeping,by c. P. Dadant. 1920
53. DIGGES, J G.
The practical bee guide; a manual of modern beekeeping,. 1918
57. Domestic animals: a pocket manual of cattle, horse, and sheep husbandry
... with a chapter on bee-keeping. 1858
69. FRASER, Henry Malcolm.
Beekeeping in antiquity. 1951
70. FRASER, Henry Malcolm.
History of beekeeping in Britain. 1958
73. GALTON, Dorothy.
Survey of a thousand years of beekeeping in Russia. 1971
95. HUNTER, John, Hon....
A manual of bee-keeping. 1875
119. MELLOR, James Eric Moulsdale.
Bee-keeping in Palestine and Egypt compared. June, 1927. 1929
121. MILLER, Charles C., 1831-1920.
A thousand answers to beekeeping questions,. 1917
147. PONGTHEP AKRANTANAKUL, 1951-
Beekeeping in Asia. 1986
154. QUINBY, Moses, 1810-1875.
Mysteries of bee-keeping explained : containing the result of 35 years'
experience, and... 1865
170. SMITH, Richard, of Quenington.
The cottagers' bee-book: containing remarks on the conservative
bee-keeping, the... 1839
192. WEBSTER, W. B.
The book of bee-keeping. A practical and complete manual on the proper
management of... 1908
204. WELLS, Samuel R. 1820-1875.
Domestic animals; a pocket manual of cattle, horse and sheep husbandry;
or, How to... 1858
Robyyan Torr d'Elandris Dennis R. Sherman
Kapellenberg, Windmaster's Hill Chapel Hill, NC
Atlantia drs at uncvx1.bitnet
From: vnend at phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Date: 13 May 91 00:19:18 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Exerpts from "The Hive and the Honey Bee", edited by Dadant and Sons, 1984,
Lib. of Congress CC# 63-15838 (No ISBN listed, sorry)
Chapter 1
The World's Beekeeping -- past and present, by Eva Crane
Beekeeping up to 1500
[Notes evidence of hives dating back to the stone age. Notes that
beekeeping in the Middle East, and use of pottery vessels made
for bees back in the Neolithic (5000BC) and that this type of clay
pots are still in use today (Picture of clay pots of the type used
in Lebanon and Israel today.) Egypt and adjoining regions used
pipes.
Notes use of basket techniques to make hives, and notes that the
coiled straw hive also dates back to the Neolithic. Notes that
wicker hives were used in parts of Europe.]
"Primative hives were usually small, because the beekeeper wanted to
encourage swarmdhs to populate his empty hives. Primitive beekeeping
consisted of little more than providing the hives, and killing the
bees (for instance by plunging the hive into boiling water) to get the
honey and wax. In ancient Egypt, smoke was used to drive the bees from
their hive, and by ancient Roman times bees were fed. At some time in
the Middle Ages, beekeepers devised a form of protection to wear when
handling their hives (Fig. 6)."
[Figure six shows a figure in a long skirt, wearing an apron, long
sleeves, bloused gloves, and a hood that covered the shoulders and
opened before the face with a circular mesh. Part of it looks rather
rigid. The illustration is stated to be from Sebastian Mu:ster's
"Cosmographia", 1545. It includes two wicker hives about half the height
of the figure in the picture, and about as wide as they are tall, dome
shaped.]
"Until the 16th century -- a significant one for the honey bee -- the
beekeeper's calender remained virtually unchanged; in early summer he
caught and hived the swarms which issued; in late summer he killed the
bees in most of his hives, cut out the combs and strained the honey from
the wax; in the fall, if necessary, he provided food in the remaining hives,
which he overwintered. Burning sulfur was commonly used for killing the
bees.
"Little was understood as to what went on inside the hive, for the events
there could not be seen. It was not realized that the large "king" bee
was in fact a female, the mother of the other bees in the hive, noe were
the sexes of the workers and drones understood, let alone the facts of mating
between the queen and drone. It was not known that the bees themselves
secreted the wax with which they built comb, nor that their visits to
flowers had anything to do with the formation of seeds and fruits."
Beekeeping--1500 to 1851
"Three separate streams of events, each of great significance in the history
of bees and beekeeping, were set in motion in the 16th century, and led on
to Langstroth's advance in 1851. First, scientific and technical developements
enabled beekeepers to understand the fundamental facts of the life cycle
and biology of their bees; second, and coupled with the first, there were
developments in beekeeping methods which gave beekeepers slightly more
control over their bees; as well as greater opportunities for observing
the bees inside the hive; and third, the honey bees themselves spread over
two new continents, from one of which was to come the greatest single advance
in the science and craft of beekeeping.
"*Discovery of the Fundimental Facts about Bees.* [emphasis orginal] The
first description of the queen bee as a female, which laid eggs, was published
in Spain in 1586, by Luis Me'ndez de Torres. Then in England Charles Butler
showed, in his _Feminine Monarchie_ (1609), that the drones were male bees,
and Richard Remnant, in his _Discourse of Historie of Bees_ (1637), that
the worker bees were females; Remnant had observed that they posessed "a
neat place for the receipt of generationa ...
"The fact that bees could raise a queen from eggs or very young larvae was
published in Germany in 1568 by Nickel Jacob, but the primary facts about
the mating of the queen with the drone were not available until 1771..."
"*Developments in Beekeeping Techniques.*" [Notes the use of one hive
to keep several swarms over the winter, and a couple of tech. for "driving"
the bees. Also, various methods of removing the honey with the least
disturbance of the bees. This discussion is without dates, and that which
follows it is all out of period. It is later noted that, in Greece, for
an unknown period of time that might well extend back into period, the
hives were upside down from the way we see them portrayed. This caused
the bees to attatch the comb to the slats that covered the top, rather
than the sloping sides, which made for easier removal. News of this tech.
reached England in 1682. It is noted that "Aristotle's account of the
life of the bee makes it seem possible that he used one of these hives when
writing his _Natural History_."]
[Langstroth's discovery was the removable frame hive, the development
that makes modern beekeeping tech. possible.]
Kwellend-Njal
From: PORTERG at ruby.vcu.EDU (Greg Porter)
Date: 14 May 91 13:28:00 GMT
Organization: The Internet
Greetings to the Rialto:
Bee folklore: I seem to remember reading that it was considered a
good idea to tell one's bees all the important family news (e.g. births,
deaths, etc.). Otherwise, the hive might not prosper, and the bees would
leave. Interesting idea. It would certainly encourage the beekeeper to
spend time with his/her hive(s), thus noting potential problems early, and
making for a healthier hive.
Fare well,
Morgan Wolfsinger (Catherine DeMott) by my lord's net access
Barony of Caer Mear, Atlantia
From: atterlep at vela.acs.oakland.edu (Somebody Else)
Date: 14 May 91 14:16:51 GMT
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI.
(Doug Brownell) writes:
> I can certainly envision an
> industrious and brave person getting a hive started but it
> wasn't common.
This is minimal information, but in the "Tres Riches Heures" (a French Book
of Hours done for the Duc de Berry) there is a picture of a family of peasants,
with nothing more than a few sheep, an open barn in need of patching, a small
house, and some beehives. If beehives were kept even by peasants then they
couldn't have been all that uncommon.
Does anyone have more information?
Lord Alan Fairfax Aluricson
Canton of the Riding of Hawkland Moor
Barony of Northwoods, Midrealm
atterlep at vela.acs.oakland.edu
From: CONS.ELF at aida.csd.uu.se ("]ke Eldberg")
Date: 15 May 91 16:21:04 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Source:
Archbishop Olaus Magnus: "History of the Nordic Peoples"
Printed in Rome A.D. 1555.
"As the Nordic countries are rich in many things...they have also...
been blessed with an abundance of honey, and the people labor much
to protect and help the bees. When the honey has been taken from the
hives, the people have a custom to leave just enough thereof for the
young bees to last them over the winter, that is to say two thirds..."
[Olaus goes on to mention that in Italy people feed the bees with
shredded figs, dried grapes etcetera, but in Scandinavia these are
foreign and expensive things, so the people prefer to leave some of
the honey.]
"In emergencies, instead of giving them honey, the people feed the
bees with crushed beans or peas, cookies made of poppy-seed, wheat
flour moistened with mead, or with meat of freshly-slaughtered chickens,
shredded. But Aristotle, in his book about the animals (book VIII,
chapter 14 and 17) writes that the ant, rat, mole and other insects
and small animals hide in their lairs all through winter; further that
the bees hide in their hives as long as the strong cold lasts, and do
not eat of the food prepared for them, and that if they are ever seen
to crawl out they look starved, with empty and transparent bellies."
Olaus goes on to tell about bee keeping, most of which seems to have
been done in the same way as today (surprise! :-)). He seems to regard
the swarming as an attempt by the bees to "escape" and tells of many
weird ways to locate the swarm and get it back, including (this sounds
strangest to me) glueing a thin thread on the back of a bee with some