THE LIVING HERITAGE
TRADITIONAL BEEKEEPING IN MOVABLE-COMB HIVES
With financial support and under the auspices
Bearers of beekeeping heritage - Crete
1. Nikolaos Birlirakis
Apiaries like the one of Nikos Birlirakis, in Mikra Anogia, Rethymno, there are few. Because, in his apiary, alongside modern hives, some of the last remaining clay hives with movable honeycombs, the traditional cretan vraskia, are in use. Nikos, an experienced beekeeper and culture enthusiast, learned the traditional beekeeping method from his father, and old local beekeepers. He practiced it to preserve and develop it. In his apiary, besides inherited vraskia, he placed replicas of old vraskia made by the traditional potter Markos Dandolos from Margarites, Rethymno, for BEELOSOPHY.
The vraski and its use
Nikos showed us an old vraski, a family heirloom, and explained how canonia (top bars-slats) are built, placed and handled. He spoke of strong bee colonies that, depending on the season, might seal the anemologo (ventilation hole just above the entrance of the hive) with propolis. He told about placing branches of ferns, mastic, plane trees or oleander on (or under) the saliera (top cover) to shade them in hot summer months, and much more. Then, Nikos inspected a vraski populated with bees, presenting details of the method.
Transferring bees from a modern hive to a vraski
With the help of his daughter Evangelia, Nikos tranferred live a bee colony from a modern hive to a vraski!
[It should be noted that, since traditional beekeeping is on the verge of extinction, the common known process is the reverse - the transfer from a traditional to a modern hive. Therefore, this demonstration is valuable for safeguarding the traditional beekeeping method, as well as for its transmission through formal or informal educational].
For the swap, we cut pieces of comb brood and food reserves from a bee colony established in a modern hive, and temporarily fixed them on the canonia. Bees then permanently secure the honeycombs, and remove the temporary bindings (which may be fig leaves, bark, sticks, twine, tape, etc.). Eventually, we gave life to a vraski by placing the canonia inside with the entire bee population, leaving the colony undisturbed to rebuild and settle in their "furnished" new home.
2. Manolis Spitadakis
An old bearer of the traditional beekeeping method, Manolis Spitadakis, recounted stories from his time. Manolis remembered placing vraskia in east-southern spots so they caught morning sun for many hours daily. He spoke to us with admiration about the "first" (queen bee), and described the job;s hardships with the tools of the time. Manolis also informed us about the practice of feeding bees sugar on a slice of bread placed inside the hive - a practice not recorded elsewhere in Greece.
3. Other bearers
During our tour in Crete for primary research, we met other practitioners of the traditional beekeeping method using movable-comb hives. We visited Ioannis Sopasis's apiary in Apladiana, Rethymno, where, besides frame hives, clay vraskia are used. At the beekeeping tourism unit Apithano (Melidoni Mylopotamos, Rethymno), Christos Andrikos presented vraskia preserved as exhibits for visitors to learn about beekeeping tradition.
Photographs: George Mestousis
Narratives
Since a vraski* is round, the canonia* are of different lengths and arranged in a specific order.
The canonia*, on their underside, where the bees build comb, have a bevel on both sides. Bees are, in a sense, forced to draw comb following the "path" set by the canoni*. Without the bevel, the colony might build comb crosswise joining all canonia*, which is a big problem because then, managing the colony would require to ruin the entire hive.
Inspection of a vraski* is harder than in modern hives, because a canoni* lacks the rim and wires of modern frames, which protect the comb and hold it in place. Thus, slow movemens are required to avoid damaging or breaking combs - which still sometimes happens, no matter how careful we are.
*vraski: vertical movable-comb clay hive of Crete
*canonia: wooden top bars
NIKOLAOS BIRLIRAKIS
BEARER OF THE TRADITIONAL BEEKEEPING MOVABLE-COMB METHOD
CRETE
To multiply bees, we would choose from good, productive bee colonies, one canoni* with brood, one with honey, and one with pollen, and place them in a new vraski, cover it and seal it from the bottom. And on the seventh day we would go and check on it...
If the season wasn't good, we would sometimes feed sugar on a slice of bread over the canonia* to help bees.
It was hard work. Because they did not have pites* full of honey from top to bottom. They also contained brood. And if they were brooded, we would not harvest them. We only harvested the ones that were full of honey. We brought them home .. it was dramatic … placing combs in sieves, crushing them by hand. Most of us lacked honey extractors, but those who had one would put the comb chunks inside, then the comb would brake - dramatic indeed.
*canoni: wooden top bar
*pites: honeycomb
MANOLIS SPITADAKIS
BEARER OF THE TRADITIONAL BEEKEEPING MOVABLE-COMB METHOD
CRETE