Bárth János szerk.: Cumania 23. (A Bács-Kiskun Megyei Önkormányzat Múzeumi Szervezetének Évkönyve, Kecskemét, 2007)

Kürti László–Papp Klára: Méhészet Lajosmizsén

318 Kürti László - Papp Klára László Kürti - Klára Papp BEEKEEPING IN LAJOSMIZSE - Summary This article describes the tradition of beekeeping in the settlement of Lajosmizse, Bács-Kiskun county. It first discusses the way in which bees were kept by locals in a traditional fashion during the early and the late middle ages. Accounts reveal the amount of honey that had to be paid to the Turkish landlord during the Ottoman occupation in the sixteenth century. Since the settlements of Lajos and Mizse were deserted after 1594 until the mid-19th century, there are no records of any activities with the exception of animal husbandry by the population of Jászberény, a town that rented the land from the Turkish lords and then by the Hungarian court that took possession of all territories abandoned. From the mid- 19th century families from Jászberény began to migrate to their new settlement and by the beginning of the 20th century three dozen families were occupied with keeping honeybees. Among them there were the Mizsey, Terenyi, Drabant and Hetzendorfers. Following WWII, the first Beekeepers' Association was set up in 1948, only to be followed by a reorganised association in 1950. However, this association was soon disbanded by the state and families were able to keep bees on their own without a corporation. During the decades of the 1960s to the 1980s, a loose association was formed, a body which was then completely reorganised after 1990. Two in-depth interviews with outstanding beekeepers, Tibor Magyarné and Ottó Németh, are offered to understand present day beekeeping, its technique and difficulties in Lajosmizse.