Tree Beekeeping in Poland Part 1
Poland has a long history of tree beekeeping. In this essay I explore some of that history and ask what, precisely, is tree beekeeping?
It doesn’t happen as often today but go back just a century or much further back in time if you prefer and walk into a wood in the Kurpie region of Poland or the Grodno region in modern day Belarus and you would find some trees containing colonies of bees. On closer inspection you might realise that the nest space is not entirely natural to the tree. Someone has used tools to tear out a space inside the trunk and then reduced the size of the entrance hole. In some cases, a false log or plank (called a Sniaot) has been attached to the trunk to better craft the outer part of the nest site. Often, deep inside a mark has been made, hidden from sight but added there for a purpose.