Cseri Miklós - Horváth Anita - Szabó Zsuzsanna (szerk.): Discover Rural Hungary!, Guide (Szentendre, Hungarian Open Air Museum, 2007)

X Kisalföld - X-12 Apiary from Nagybajcs

X-11,12 X-12 Apiary, Nagybajcs The wattle fenced bee-shed belonging to the Ásvány farmyard in Szigetköz stands outside the yard. The south-eastern side of the plank walled, reed thatched structure is open. Twenty-four wickerwork beehives daubed with mud and whitewashed are lined up on wooden shelves. In the small garden of the apiary lilac, hazel bushes lured the bees. • Peasant apiary Although in the Middle Ages the monasteries were the centres of bee-keeping, honey appeared relatively early among the serfs' tithes. Peasant apiarists kept their bees in hollowed stumps brought home from the wood or beehives - straw, bulrush and wicker baskets under the eaves, in the garden or in an apiary. The beehives imitated the natural habitat with a spacious inside and the combs fastened to the top and the sides. The colonies of bees multiplied naturally by swarming. The swarm settled on trees or bushes was shaken into a beehive hung on a pole. Hives with frames that could be removed only became widespread in the late 19th century. More efficient methods of production, based on scientific observation of bees _ i and built on honey-extraction tech- \\ nology did not become common until ' Alii " the middle of the 20th century.