Bee Keeping in Japan

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Der Alte Fritz

House Bee
Joined
Aug 1, 2010
Messages
346
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Location
Rye, East Sussex
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
2
Japanese Warre type beehive sitting on top of a plant that acts as a bee lure -Cymbidium floribundum (kinryouhen in Japanese)

img017.jpg

Catching a swarm:
img019.jpg


They use cross members instead of frames to support the comb:
img027.jpg

and use piano wire to separate the boxes at harvest time.

Japanese bees are Apis cerana japonica which is less prolific, more inclined to swarm but more disease resistant.

They even have the bees trained to sing the company song at the start of the day:patriot:
img002.jpg
 
Would Cymbidium floribundum work in this country?
 
I know isn't it fantastic!
I came across this site when reading about German bee keeping using skeps and a huge sort of log (Anastasia hive?????) as used in the Ukraine. Was on a German site and was just looking at different approaches to keeping bees from around the world.

What impressed me about this guy in Japan, was the craftsmanship he put into his hives. They have a very long tradition of keeping bees in Japan - what I could not get to the bottom of was, what they used before the Warre hive which obviously came in from the West around 1880. He did have what looked like a log sawn in half which could be used like a Warre hive, brood in the bottom half and then you harvest the top section every season.
 
great piccies. I looked at the source site and very interesting. The beek does seem to put hives in interesting places.
 
You missed out my favourite one from this site,
img029.jpg

:drool5:

loved the google translation for this image, quote " Dimensions in mm 240 mm X 240 X 150 mm height, area children are hanging a little bee "

lol, cruel local kids...same everywhere :p
 
Hi Fritz, I think it pre dates Warre. See here,
http://warre.************/japan.htm

"It emerged that the beekeeping system Syouichi Morimoto uses is a traditional one. It was used in Japan during the Edo period (A.D.1586 to A.D.1911). It is very similar to Warré's."

Mike
 

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