Just saw this very interesting post by Hubert Pilon on the Warre Beekeeping
mailing list
- Paul
''The following text was written by Josef Ledinský in 1762 and chronicles the
Slovak apicultural folklore of the time. It is reproduced here in translated
form and with comments on some of the traditional practices relating to 18th
Century European beekeeping.''
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4c84d3_4d422b4e179e46d59e4e66d06abc64c1.pdf
[Paul: it's short, and fun, you can rad it in 2-3 minutes]
An interesting and curious read...
For sure, lots of superstition and religion in there.
Some tips could be given a try, like this one:
''So that each swarm settles on a single
branch. Rub the branch with thyme and wild
ginger and the swarm will cluster on it.''
This comment at the bottom of text about 18th century beekeeping explains
partially why so much superstitions:
''While beekeepers today place enormous efforts into
swarm control, traditional beekeeping prizes
swarming bees. In the early days before queen
breeding, the only way to multiply the bee stock was
to let it swarm. Without a swarm, a beekeeper was
unable to populate new hives and replace dying
colonies. When a swarm escaped, the beekeeper lost
a considerable portion of his harvest. Such was the
importance of swarms that in Slovakia until the
1940s, some beekeepers took days off work to look
out for swarms.
It is interesting to note that out of the 26 practices
listed Ledinský, 12 relate either directly or indirectly
to swarming. This can be explained by the fact that
catching a swarm and hiving it is a laborious task that
carries much uncertainty, swarming itself is difficult
to predict and could be complicated by many
circumstances outside of the beekeeper’s control. By
modern standards, the biological knowledge of
traditional beekeepers was quite limited and so
hiving a swarm must have presented a remarkable
challenge for a person, whose livelihood depended
on beekeeping. For this reason, various agrarian
cultures around the world have developed a number
of complex and sometimes even bizarre customs
relating to catching swarms (Crane, 1983, The
Archaeology of Beekeeping, p. 224, 244). The
situation is somewhat analogous to what the Polish
anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski observed in
one of his classical studies of the Trobriand islanders
in the Solomon Sea. He observed that while fishing in
the inner lagoons, which typically yielded abundant
fish with little danger, the islanders had little use for
superstitions or magic. However, out at the open sea
where fishing was dangerous and the results always
highly unpredictable, the Trobrianders could not rely
on their knowledge and skills but instead practiced
countless magic rituals “to secure safety and good
results”. When faced with uncertain situations,
human communities will often develop a rich
repertoire of superstitions and habits which may
otherwise seem irrational to the outside observer
(Poggie and Gersuny, 1972, Journal of American
Folklore, 85:66–72).
Bee swarms also held an important role in other
areas of traditional rural life. Seeing a bee swarm was
widely regarded as a good omen. In Medieval Europe,
it was believed that if a swarm settled above the head
of a child, it was a sign of a lucky future. In Holland,
young ladies would decorate a tree on which swarms
were known to settle before going to a ball (Moreaux,
1968, l'Apiculteur, 1968:21,72,91).''
