Wall recesses for bee hives.

Wall recesses for bee hives. Introduction Until the introduction of movable-frame bee hives in the late 19thcentury, beekeepers used traditional hives they made from localmaterials. The type of hive varied from region to region according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. local climate and materials, and among any one people the type ofbeekeeping beekeepingor apicultureCare and manipulation of honeybees to enable them to produce and store more honey than they need so that the excess can be collected. Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of animal husbandry. was passed down from generation to generation with little orno change (Crane 1999: 161-404). In a hot or warm climate, a hive was usually placed horizontally,and the honey combs were harvested from one end (Crane 1999: 161-211).In the cooler climate of northern Europe the hive was usually placedupright, which conserved heat generated by the bees, and honey combswere harvested from either the top or bottom (Crane 1999: 226-57). Oneform of upright hive, used widely in the west except Spain (Crane1999:238-57), was a basket (skep skep?n.A beehive, especially one of straw.[Middle English, basket, from Old Norse skeppa, a dry measure, and from Old English sceppe (from Old Norse skeppa). ) of coiled straw (FIGURE 1) or of wovenwicker coated with mud and cow dung Noun 1. cow dung - a piece of dried bovine dungbuffalo chip, cow chip, chipdroppings, dung, muck - fecal matter of animals (FIGURE 2). A skep neededsubstantial protection against the weather, and a cover was placed overeach hive if it stood in the open. Where timber was plentiful abeekeeper might build a wooden shelter for all his skeps, and suchshelters are shown in English, French and German manuscripts and booksfrom the 16th century onwards (Crane 1999: 319-20). [Figures 1-2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In regions where building stone was freely available -- oftenupland areas with a high rainfall -- recesses for hives might be builtinto a stone wall (FIGURE 3). From 1952 onwards many of these wererecorded in a Register set up by the International Bee ResearchAssociation. By December 1999 the Register contained details of 1214such walls in Britain, Ireland and France. These walls and theirrecesses are the subject of this paper. Their geographical distribution the natural arrangements of animals and plants in particular regions or districts.See under Distribution.See also: Distribution Geographic ,dates and characteristics provide useful information about aspects ofbeekeeping in the region from the 12th to the 19th century. [Figure 3 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In certain Greek islands some hives were also housed in wallrecesses, especially those made in the retaining walls of a terracedhillside (Bikos 1994 & pers. comm.); however, a different system ofbeekeeping was used there. Study data and methods For each site (wall) added to the IBRA IBRA Indonesian Bank Restructuring AgencyIBRA International Bee Research Association (United Kingdom)IBRA Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for AustraliaIBRA International Barrel Racing Association Register, a standard formwas completed at the site; this gave full details and relevanthistorical information, and was accompanied by photographs or drawings.One or other of the authors has located about a quarter of the sites inBritain and Ireland and some in France. Records for other sites werecontributed by local historians and individual property owners and byother long-term recorders. Further sites were added to the Register by consulting the recordsof the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales,National Monuments Record of English Heritage English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) with a broad remit of managing the historic environment of England. It was set up under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983. , National Monuments Recordof Scotland, and by contacting the (English) National Trust and the DryStone Walling Association. Additional information about sites in Francewas obtained during two conferences there (Chevet Che`vet´n. 1. (Arch.) The extreme end of the chancel or choir; properly the round or polygonal part. 1998; Masetti 1996).Details for separate regions up to 1981 were published in Thearchaeology of beekeeping (Crane 1983) and subsequently: regions within Britain: Crane & Walker (1984/ 85), Foster(1986), Green (1997), Walker (1987; 1988a; 1988b), Walker & Crane1991, Walker & Linnard (1990), Walker & Ogden (1995) Ireland: Walker & Crane (1998) regions within France: Chevet(1989; 1995; 1998), Godefrey (1997; 1998), Masetti (1996), Musee deSalon (1993). Reliability of data Direct data about the sites -- such as recess dimensions, aspectand material of the wall, and location -- are considered to be reliable,but if the wall had been partly demolished the data were incomplete.Information on date of building varied from evidence of an exact year ordecade to an informed estimate. Evidence at the site or locally showed that the recesses in somewalls had been used for hives. For most other walls we have been able toconfirm that this was so from their similarity to wall recesses known tohave been used for hives, and from our knowledge of the types of sitesuitable for bees. Over the years we have accumulated separate recordsof similar outdoor recesses built for other specific purposes: forhousing a garden ornament A garden ornament is an item used for garden decoration. The category can include fountains, statues, sundials, masks, chimes, weathervanes, gnomes and other non-necessities. The first period in which garden ornaments became common in the West is Roman gardens. , a lamp or some sort of tool, or as falconmews or goose pens. Geographical distribution of the walls TABLE 1 lists the number of walls with recesses for hives recordedin different regions. Detailed location maps of sites so far recorded indifferent parts of Britain and Ireland were published by Crane (1983)and in papers by Walker (1987; 1988a; 1988b), Walker & Crane (1991),Walker & Linnard (1990) and Walker & Ogden (1995). TABLE 1. Walls with hive recesses: number of sites, number ofrecesses per site and period built. Entries include records to the endof 1999. recesses/site no. no. dated century sites average range sites builtFrance 129 16.0 1-100 27 17th-19thIreland 32 6.8 1-22 17 16th-19thBritain 1053 4.5 1-46 529 12th-19th England 759 4.8 1-46 376 12th-19th Scotland 207 3.3 1-12 120 13th-19th Wales 87 5.5 1-36 33 14th-19th The 1981 distribution in Britain and Ireland (Crane 1983:152-5,248-9) showed clusters of sites in upland areas with a highrainfall (as in parts of Devon, Wales, Cumbria, Yorkshire), and in partsof Kent and eastern Scotland which are subject to cold winds in winter.The records added in the last 20 years conform to Verb 1. conform to - satisfy a condition or restriction; "Does this paper meet the requirements for the degree?"fit, meetcoordinate - be co-ordinated; "These activities coordinate well" a very similardistribution. In France 117 new records have been obtained since 1981; of thepresent total (129), 92 are in Provence which has rich bee forage and along flowering season, but where hives need protection from the mistral;of the 37 others, 14 are in Bearn (Pyrenees-Atlantiques), 9 in northernNormandy (Manche) and 4 in Brittany -- areas exposed to rain-bearingwinds -- and 10 in six other departments. Characteristics of the walls and recesses Date of building and of use With a few exceptions, walls with hive recesses were built beforeabout 1900. (Modern hives using movable frames, introduced from 1860onwards, are robust enough to stand in the rain.) Some walls in theRegister could be reliably dated, e.g. from a contemporary document;many others were dated to century using historical information about thesite, or from building details such as brick size. Many walls with hive recesses probably disappeared before recordingbegan, but of the surviving walls the greatest number seem to have beenbuilt in England during the 17th and 18th centuries, in Scotland andIreland during the 18th century, and in Wales and France during the 18thand 19th centuries. However, less than half the walls in Ireland andFrance could be dated. TABLE 1 shows the periods when the recorded wallswere built in the different regions. Walls in France may have sufferedmore damage in time of war than those in England, where 23 are datedbefore 1500. The earliest recorded wall (with at least three hiverecesses) was at Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey in Buckfastleigh, Devon, England is one of a small number of monasteries active in Britain today. It was founded in 1018, dedicated to Saint Mary, and run by the Cistercian order from 1147 until it was destroyed under the Dissolution of the Monasteries. , Buckfastleigh, Devon (A208)(1), wherethe Reverend Leo Smith This article is about the sculptor. For the jazz musician, see Wadada Leo Smith. Leo Smith (born 1947) is a sculptor from Winona, Minnesota. He works primarily in wood. confirmed in 1954 that it was probably built inthe 12th century as part of a Cistercian monastery there. Unfortunatelyin 1994 the wall was rebuilt with the recesses in a somewhat differentstyle. The earliest written record found of the use of wall recesses forhives is in a book published in London. In A new orchard and garden(1623) William Lawson William Lawson (2 June1774 – 16 June1850) was an explorer of New South Wales, Australia who co-discovered a passage inland through the Blue Mountains from Sydney. said at the end of the section on keeping bees:`Some ... use[d] to make seats for them in the stone wall of theirorchard, or garden, which is good, but wood is better.' A paintingmade around 1700, above the living room fireplace of a farmhouse (FIGURE4) showed the owner in his garden, and skeps in recesses in a gardenwall; these recesses still exist. [Figure 4 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Direct evidence of beekeeping with hives in wall recesses wasobtained for at least 15% of the sites in Cumbria and Devon in England(Walker & Crane 1991; Walker & Ogden 1995), and for smallerproportions elsewhere. A recess might contain a specially shaped skepbase, or the remains of a skep, or traces of beeswax beeswax:see wax. beeswaxCommercially useful wax secreted by worker honeybees to make the cell walls of the honeycomb. A bee consumes an estimated 6–10 lbs (3–4. . Sometimes therecesses had been known by a bee-related name, and occasionally a localresident remembered skeps of bees in them. Location in a property, and direction faced Early English Early EnglishNouna style of architecture used in England in the 12th and 13th centuries, characterized by narrow pointed arches and ornamental intersecting stonework in windows beekeeping books recommended placing bees in a gardenor orchard, especially in a sheltered place and where they could bewatched over (for instance Butler, 1609: Chapter II). The type of location is known for 860 walls with hive recesses inBritain and Ireland: 67% were in a garden (79% in Scotland); 9% were ina house wall which probably faced on to a garden, and 3% were in anorchard. A wall in a field or other enclosure or a farm building eachaccounted for a further 4% or 5%. In France the type of location -- established for less than halfthe sites -- was more varied: only 43% of the walls bounded a garden,and 17% bounded another cultivated plot such as a vineyard (FIGURE 5),olive grove Olive Grove was Sheffield Wednesday F.C.'s first permanent football ground, home to the club for just over a decade at the end of the 19th Century. It was located near Queens Road in the centre of Sheffield. or orchard. A further 13% were walls of buildings (only onea house wall), and 27% had other functions. [Figure 5 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In each of the regions about 50% of the walls faced south. InBritain and Ireland 30% faced southeast, east or northeast, and inFrance 39%. Fewer faced southwest, west or northwest (Britain andIreland 17%, France 7%), and almost none faced north. Thus hives facedtowards the sun, as recommended by Columella Columella(Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella) (kŏl'yəmĕl`ə), fl. 1st cent. A.D., Latin writer on agriculture, b. Gades (now Cádiz), Spain. (De re rustica 9.5.1,9.7.4-5), and away from the prevailing wind prevailing wind?A wind that blows predominantly from a single general direction. The trade winds of the tropics, which blow from the east throughout the year, are prevailing winds. See illustration at wind.Noun 1. . Material of the wall, and size and shape of the recesses Wails with hive recesses were usually built of the most commonbuilding material in the area. Nearly all those recorded in France andScotland were of stone, either dry or mortared, although in Normandy afew were of clay. The greatest variety of wall material was in England,where 66% were of stone, 18% of brick and 16% -- almost all of them inDevon -- of cob, a mixture mainly of clay and straw. The shape of hive recesses proved to be closely linked with thematerial of the wall and the construction technique. In a drystone See Dhrystones. wallor a mortared wall of random rubble, almost all recesses were square orrectangular. Their width was limited by the length of a stone availablefor the lintel, and this accounts for some of the irregularities amongrecesses in the same wall. The base was usually, but not always, made ofa single slab. In a wall of coursed rubble, dressed stone, freestone free��stone?n.1. A stone, such as limestone, that is soft enough to be cut easily without shattering or splitting.2. A fruit, especially a peach, that has a stone that does not adhere to the pulp. See Regional Note at andiron. orbrick, the top of the recess might be an arch -- semicircular,triangular or of a more elaborate shape. The height of the recess wasusually less in cob walls than in others, with the arch springing fromthe base (see Walker & Ogden 1995). A recess was large enough to hold a single skep placed on a stoneor wooden base; the beekeeping books published in England between 1593and 1890 advocated skeps 30-38 cm in diameter (Crane 1983: 142). InBritain and Ireland most recesses were between 35 and 60 cm wide; inScotland some were wider -- up to 73 cm. K.D. Whyte (pers. comm. 1934)reported that in four recesses at West Newton West Newton is the name of various locations:in England West Newton, East Riding of Yorkshire West Newton, Norfolk West Newton, Somerset in the United States West Newton, Indiana West Newton, Massachusetts , Angus (A80), insulatingmaterial was packed round each skep for the winter, and this may havebeen done elsewhere in Scotland and parts of northern England Northern England, The North or North of England is a rather ill-defined term, with no universally accepted definition. Its extent may be subject to personal opinion and many companies or organisations have differing definitions as to what it constitutes. (Walker1988b: 130; Walker & Crane 1991: 250). A few recesses in both Britain and France were built double-width,and would hold two skeps. The depth of recesses was often less than the width, and Crane(1983: 250-309) gave detailed measurements. As a rule, brick walls areless thick than stone walls (Walker 1988a), and unless the skep in arecess was small, its base protruded from such a wall. In parts of the south of France South of Francesouth n the South of France → le Sud de la France, le Miditaller hives were used, eitherwicker skeps or upright logs (Crane 1999: 247-8). In Provence, whereupright log hives were usual (Legros 1969: 126), recesses in some wallswere tall enough to house them. An 1894 photograph in Vaucluse (F41)published by Musee de Salon (1993) shows upright log or board hives infour recesses. In Rougon (F130) in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, 15 tallrecesses contained upright wooden hives in 1999. Number of recesses in a wall TABLE 1 shows the number of the hive recesses in a wall in thedifferent regions. In Britain the majority of recorded walls had 3-6recesses. In Cumbria and Devon especially, many of the walls recordedwere associated with small dwelling houses and had only a few recesses.In contrast, a stone or brick wall in the estate of a large andimportant house usually had at least 15, and it often provided anarchitectural feature in the garden or other part of the estate. Thelargest number in England is 46 at Burrington, Somerset (A1240), datedaround 1800. A wall built in 1600-1650 at Skyers Hall in Yorkshire(A499) had 36 recesses, but it collapsed in 1978. In Ireland half thewalls contained only 1 to 5 recesses, but those in demesnes built byricher owners had up to 22. In France the number of recesses ranged up to 100 (atTessy-sur-Vire in Normandy, F30). In Provence, three walls inBouches-du-Rhone had 55 recesses and one had 68; one wall in Vauclusehad 59 and another had 55. Such walls with many recesses were built atcountry houses in the 19th century, and indicate large-scale beekeepingwhich may have resulted from the trade blockade between 1806 and 1810,leading to a shortage of sugar and an increased demand for honey (Museede Salon 1993). Also, beekeeping can be very productive in France:recent figures (Crane 1990: 31) show that the average honey harvest the gathering of honey from hives, or the honey which is gathered.See also: Honey froma modern hive in France was twice that from a modern hive in Britain.Nevertheless, half the walls recorded in France had 11 recesses orfewer. Conclusions Recesses have been built in stone walls since 2000 BC or earlier,to hold various objects (Crane 1983: 160). Between around 1100 and 1900some beekeepers in Britain, Ireland and France housed their hives inwall recesses (Crane 1983: 117-62). The present study is based on 1214records compiled between 1952 and 1999; it provides substantial evidenceabout the practice in this region of northwest Europe. No wall recessesfor hives were found in the adjacent countries, although skeps were alsoused in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland. However, in thesefour countries wood was often plentiful, and skeps were commonly kept ina roofed bee shelter or bee house (Crane 1999: 319-21). In Italy andSpain, the climate was generally more benign, and less protection forhives was needed. For the records of walls now in the IBRA Register, the distributionand characteristics show some clear patterns in France, Britain andIreland: * Walls were in areas which were not the best for beekeeping, butwhich could give good honey yields if the hives were provided with extraprotection from adverse weather. * Walls were in areas where building stone was freely available buttimber less so, or where cob or brick was commonly used for building. * The shape of the recesses was largely determined by the buildingmaterial. * There were differences between the number of recesses in a wallin various regions, and also according to the size of the property. In Britain, where 529 sites could be dated, walls with hiverecesses built from the 12th century onwards were recorded. In Ireland,where only 17 sites could be dated, the earliest were from the 16thcentury. Few walls in France could be dated, and the earliest recordedwere from the 17th century. Acknowledgements. We greatly appreciate the help given by theorganizations listed under `Study data and methods', and by therecorders of many individual sites, notably Dr Eric Green and FrankAlston in England, Dr William Linnard in Wales, and Robert Chevet andLuigi Masetti in France. (1) The Register number of a site is given in brackets, preceded byA (Britain and Ireland) or F (France). References BIKOS, T. 1994. [Beekeeping recordings], Melissokomiki Epitheoris8: 225-8, 309-12, 353-8 (in Greek); also personal communication. BUTLER, C. 1609. The feminine monarchie.... Oxford: printed JosephBarnes. (Facsimile reprints: English Experience No. 81, Amsterdam:Theatrum Orbis, 1969; Mytholmroyd: Northern Bee Books, 1985.) CHEVET, R. 1989. Traditions d'apiculture en Bearn, Revuefrancaise d'Apiculture 489: 455-8; 490: 507-8. 1995. Batir pour les abeilles. Les logettes de Bearn, Revuefrancaise d'Apiculture 551: 213-18. (Ed.). 1998. Batir pour les abeilles. L'architecturevernaculaire en apiculture traditionelle (Proceedings of a conference,14-16 November 1998). Saint-Faust: Ecomusee de la Cite des Abeilles. CRANE, E. 1983. The archaeology of beekeeping. London: Duckworth. 1990. Bees and beekeeping: Science, practice and world resources.London: Heinemann Newnes. 1999. The world history of beekeeping and honey hunting. London:Duckworth. CRANE, E. & P. WALKER. 1984/85. Evidence on Welsh beekeeping inthe past, Folk Life 23: 21-48; 24: 121-3. 1998. Irish beekeeping in the past, Ulster Folklife Folklife is an extension of, and often an alternate term for the subject of, folklore. The term gained usage in the United States in the 1960s from its use by such folklore scholars as Don Yoder and Warren Roberts, who wished to recognize that the study of folklore goes beyond oral 44: 45-59. FOSTER, A.M. 1986. Bee boles in Wiltshire, Wiltshire Archaeologicaland Natural History Magazine 80: 176-83. GODEFREY, H. 1997. 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WALKER, P. 1987. Past beekeeping in Yorkshire: evidence from beeholes and other local sources, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal59:119-37. 1988a. Bee boles in Kent, Archaeologia Cantiana 106: 107-27. 1988b. Bee boles and past beekeeping in Scotland, Review ofScottish Culture 4:105-17. WALKER, P. & E. CRANE. 1991. Bee shelters and bee boles inCumbria, Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian& Archaeological Society 91:237-62. WALKER, P. & W. LINNARD. 1990. Bee boles and other beekeepingstructures in Wales, Archaeologia Cambrensis 139: 56-73. WALKER, P. & R.B. OGDEN. 1995. Bee boles and other beekeepingstructures in Devon, Transactions of the Devonshire Association for theAdvancement of Science, Literature and the Arts 127: 97-119. EVA CRANE & PENELOPE WALKER, Woodside House, Woodside Hill,Gerrards Cross SL9 9TB, England. walker@jaffna.freeserve.co.uk Received 19 March 1999, revised 27 April 2000, accepted 7 July2000.