Slovenian Bee-Hives

Someone mentioned a Slovenian Bee-hive in a comment on Paul's bee hut video so I decided to check it out and they are SO neat!


source:quixotree

Apparently they are basically enclosed bee huts with some sort of work station behind it where you can tend to them and keep your equipment and what not. (Although I couldn't really find a good picture of that part)

They are well-known for their bright colors and their artfully painted front slats. The tradition started many years ago around the introduction of buckwheat cultivation. The paintings were very folksy and often depicted animals taking over humans. There is a whole gallery of Slovenian beehive art here. But here are a few of my favorites from that link:


(fox shaving a man)


(snail chasing men)


(job on a pile of manure)

Anyway, Slovenians believed that the bright colors helped the bees find their home and I just can't get over how cool they are. If only I had any artistic capabilities what so ever.. A girl can dream, right?

Here are a few more cool pictures:


source:gallery of apicultural museum


source:velvet's fullbright blog


source: honeyfingers

Cassie Langstraat wrote:
Apparently they are basically enclosed bee huts with some sort of work station behind it where you can tend to them and keep your equipment and what not. (Although I couldn't really find a good picture of that part)

Hey. The traditional Slovenian beehives are not of the Langstroth type; a single hive does not consist of stacked boxes opening from the top. Instead, the entire backside vertical panel is the door. So entire hives can be stacked upon each other to form one wall of the beehut; and accessed by the keeper from the inside of the hut.

In this gallery, for example, you can see (among other things) the inside of a really large building of this type: http://www.cebelarstvo-dremelj.si/fotogalerija/

And here's a really special example http://cebelarski-muzej.si/tigeli/sl/cebelarski-muzej

The hives seen in the photos you presented, except the first photo, are of the "kranjič" type, several centuries old. You can read a bit more about it here: http://www.angelfire.com/folk/mizarstvo/prod01eng.htm

The hives seen in your first photo are of the Alberti-Žnidaršič type which became prevalent in early 20th century and is, with some variation, still the dominant type in Slovenia nowadays. Usually it takes the form of 2 stories of 10 frames each and it still opens entirely from one side, thus keeping the suitability for installation in bee-huts such as you have encountered.

Here's a picture from the photo gallery linked above, of the inside of a bee building.

A bee hut doing it's job.

Crt Jakhel wrote:

Hey. The traditional Slovenian beehives are not of the Langstroth type; a single hive does not consist of stacked boxes opening from the top. Instead, the entire backside vertical panel is the door. So entire hives can be stacked upon each other to form one wall of the beehut; and accessed by the keeper from the inside of the hut.

In this gallery, for example, you can see (among other things) the inside of a really large building of this type: http://www.cebelarstvo-dremelj.si/fotogalerija/

And here's a really special example http://cebelarski-muzej.si/tigeli/sl/cebelarski-muzej

The hives seen in the photos you presented, except the first photo, are of the "kranjič" type, several centuries old. You can read a bit more about it here: http://www.angelfire.com/folk/mizarstvo/prod01eng.htm

The hives seen in your first photo are of the Alberti-Žnidaršič type which became prevalent in early 20th century and is, with some variation, still the dominant type in Slovenia nowadays. Usually it takes the form of 2 stories of 10 frames each and it still opens entirely from one side, thus keeping the suitability for installation in bee-huts such as you have encountered.

Wow! Amazing knowledge! Thanks so much!

The hives look small - like 2 deeps or even smaller. I'm curious how they manage them.

they do look nice. I can think of at least a couple of drawbacks, though.

Patrick hinted at one: the individual colonies can't grow very large because of the small size of the hives.

additionally, putting so many colonies so close together can have some rather negative ramifications for pathogen transmission and colony health, particularly if one is trying to avoid treatments.

Cassie Langstraat wrote:Wow! Amazing knowledge! Thanks so much!

Well, not really... I'm only starting out as a bee-keeper but I do have the advantage of living in Slovenia

tel jetson wrote:they do look nice. I can think of at least a couple of drawbacks, though.
Patrick hinted at one: the individual colonies can't grow very large because of the small size of the hives.
additionally, putting so many colonies so close together can have some rather negative ramifications for pathogen transmission and colony health, particularly if one is trying to avoid treatments.

Both good points. When starting out as a beekeeper I decided to go with LR exactly because the management seemed more straightforward without the constraints ineherent in the AŽ system. I can't really comment on how to best manage a non-extensible hive because I have no experience with them. But the very long tradition of beekeeping in Slovenia shows that it's feasible.

As to bee health, I'm not sure there is anybody in the country (that I have heard of - could be important) that practices zero treatment. Even organic acids are only used by a small minority of beekeepers (below 10% if I recall some documents correctly). Personally I'm learning to work with formic & oxalic acids but it's my first year and, I'm told, a particularly bad one at that concerning varroa infestation. The swarms were housed at the end of May; after a 20-day formic treatment in July/August two of our 3 hives (LR 2/3) are OK but one seems to be under heavy attack.

In any case, AŽ has remained predominant in Slovenia and is considered to be a part of national folklore despite actually being of German / Italian origin. World-wide the LR system and its variations has a 90%+ share; in Slovenia, AŽ has such a share and LR is an exotic minority. There is a trend toward its adoption but it's a slow one.

One thing you also need to consider is that the social and economic situation of a beekeeper is different in Slovenia vs. the US.

* In the US, as far as I know, beekeeping is, for the most part, an enterprise, a commercial venture; also, income comes largely from pollination.

* In Slovenia, the concept of paid-for pollination does not exist. Although there are large commercial beekeepers, "large" means at most let's say 300 hives. The predominant situation is 5-20 hives managed by a person of advanced age according to the guidelines of the previous generation, producing honey for the family and neighbors, with any surplus being more of a problem than an opportunity. A problem that is then solved by a guy coming round with a van, paying a super low price, taking the honey, pouring it all together from various sources and selling it on who knows where.

Despite that, Slovenia is the homeland of the Carnica bee strain which is both economically important and a component of national pride. Efforts continue to preserve and advance it. The number of bee families in the entire country remains at about 150.000. Carnica queens are exported all over the world and are considered excellent for their docility and production.

This thread on beesource.com might be interesting concerning the AŽ system: http://www.beesource.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-255405.html

Carnica queens are exported all over the world and are considered excellent for their docility and production.

Hej Crt.
Thanks for good answers on behalf of Slovenians.
I'm lucky i moved one year ago to a local region where Dremelj family is living.
Was sycthing around their beehut on picture below twice this year before sunrise... and had a good chat with the guy.
Apis mellifera carnica queens are his main income being amongst top providers for the whole world.
I can forward questions to him, so post them if any of you would like to know more about bees, queens, beehuts etc...
Aljaz

Aljaz Plankl wrote:

Carnica queens are exported all over the world and are considered excellent for their docility and production.

Hej Crt.
Thanks for good answers on behalf of Slovenians.
I'm lucky i moved one year ago to a local region where Dremelj family is living.
Was sycthing around their beehut on picture below twice this year before sunrise... and had a good chat with the guy.
Apis mellifera carnica queens are his main income being amongst top providers for the whole world.
I can forward questions to him, so post them if any of you would like to know more about bees, queens, beehuts etc...
Aljaz

I've searched and searched everywhere for some decent woodworking plans to make these AZ style hives, and the best I can get is a front / side cad drawing with just about zero helpful information for woodworking...

If you are still able to could you ask him if he has any woodworking plans to guide me in making my own AZ hives?

Thanks

Hello. Did you ever find good plans for these hives. I have been looking and can’t find any either.

Do these help?

http://www.czs.si/Files/AZ%20PANJ.pdf

http://web.bf.uni-lj.si/jbozic/cic/nacrti.html

Thank you, Crt!
This document on the second site you linked to is in English and has what looks to be a good description of using the AZ hives: http://web.bf.uni-lj.si/jbozic/AZhive/AZsampler.pdf
They also have a paperback for sale: https://amzn.to/3vV8qwi (affiliate link). Unfortunately it does seem overpriced, as it's only 65 pages.
But I admit, I am still daydreaming about beekeeping, the reality is still sometime in the future!

This is the Slovenian beekeepers' association: https://czs.si/

Click the little English flag in the top right corner.

There should for sure be an email contact address where you can contact them, explain your situation and I'm sure they will be glad to help. If all else fails simply use the general info@czs.si .

Those are so cool. I'm curious what the small boxes under the landing boards are for.

Mike Barkley wrote:Those are so cool. I'm curious what the small boxes under the landing boards are for.

My guess is pollen traps. Know nothing about Slovenian hives, but they look very much like entrance pollen traps widely available for langstroth hives.

Thought they might be but didn't see any holes. I see one now on the upper right yellow one.