Overview attitude

Beekeeping and the knowledge of how to keep bees were already an important topic in ancient Rome. Beekeeping also played a major role among the Germans, but it was mainly the mead and less the honey that made the Germans happy.

A decisive development took the beekeeping in the European Middle Ages, when with the forest beekeeping ("Zeideln") and the house resp. Garden beekeeping two types of beekeeping were widespread.

At a height of around six meters, the Zeidler cut cavities in the coniferous wood of the forest, left an entrance hole open and closed this nest with boards.

However, this type of beekeeping was difficult and dangerous, which is why people soon began to bring the bees closer to people's homes. In the beginning, plaited baskets and log hives (hollowed out tree trunks) were used, with which the honey could only be harvested by cutting out the honeycomb and thus damaging the bee nest.

It was not until the middle of the 19th century that the American pastor Langstroth developed movable and removable combs in frames. Another advance was the introduction of the honey extractor, which increased the efficiency of beekeeping even more.

The development of modern magazines can also be traced back to Langstroth, because through lengthy research he was able to determine the ideal distance between the movable frames. Thus, the beekeepers finally had a mobile bee dwelling at their disposal with which they could transport the bees to the best feeding places and to changing forages.

In Switzerland, the traditional Swiss boxes are still common today, often near farmhouses. These permanent bee dwellings look like small chalets, on the outside are the usually colored entrance holes for the bees. Beekeepers can conveniently care for the bees from inside these miniature houses.