Crane, Eva. 1998. Wall Hives and Wall Beekeeping.

Bee World 79(1): 11-22 Original Article

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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Dr W Rubink and R Rivera of US Agricultural Research Services (Weslaco, Texas, USA) for officially identifying our mite samples as Varroo Jacobson/. A Sanchez Chavez is thanked for drawing the map of Costa Rica. Beekeeper F Elizondo of Los Santos is thanked for allowing us to use some of his infested colonies for the formic acid experiment

References
I. ARCE ARCE.H G; VEEN, J W VAN (1997) Production, processing and quality of honeys in Central America and Mexico. In Sommeijer, M J; Beetsma, J; Boot, W-J; Robberts, E-J; Vries de, R (eds) Perspectives for honey production in the tropics. NECTAR; Bennekom, Netherlands; pp 103-115. 1 CALDERONE, N W; SPIVAK, M (1995) Plant extracts for control of the parasitic mite Vorroo jacobsoni (Acari: Varroidae) in colonies of the western honey bee (Hvmenoptera: Apidae). Journal of Economic Entomology 88(5): I2II-I2I5. 3. CAMAZINE, S (1986) Differential reproduction of the mite, Vorroo jocobsora' (Mesostigmata: Varroidae), on Africanized and European honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 79(5): 801-803. , 4. DE JONG, D; GONCALVES, L S; MORSE, R A (1984) Dependence on climate of the virulence of Vorroo jocobsom. Bee World 65(2): 117-121.

5. RIES, I (1993) Vorroo in cold climates: population dynamics, biotechnical control and organic acids. In Matheson. A (ed) Living wittt rorma. IBRA; Cardiff. UK; pp 37-48. 6. HOOD. W M (1997) Field test of the varroa treatment device (TM). American Bee journal 137(3): 224. 7. MATHESON, A (1996) World bee health update. Bee World 77(1): 45-51. 8. MORETTO.G (1997) Defense of Africanized' bee workers against the mite Varroa jacobsoni in Southern Brazil. American Bee Journal I37,((0): 746-747. 9. NIXON, M (1982) Preliminary world maps of honey bee diseases and parasites. Bee World 63(1): 23-42. 10. OCHEITA, J (1995) Beekeeping extensionist of INTECAR Guatemala. Personal communication. 11. RITTER, W (1993) Chemical control: options and problems. In Matheson, A (ed) living with vorroo. IBRA; Cardiff, UK; pp 17-24. 12. RUIJTER DE A (1993) Varroa at the neighbours: ten years' experience in The Netherlands. In Matheson, A (ed) Living with varroa. IBRA; Cardiff, UK; pp 33-36. 13. RUIJTER DE, A; EIJNDE, J VAN DEN (1989) Reid experiment to determine the efficacy of Apistan on Varroa mites in bee colonies and the effect on spring development of treated colonies. In Cavalloro, R (ed) Present status of yarroatoys in Europe and progress in the varroa mite control. Proceedings of a meeting of the ECExperts' Croup, Udine, Italy, 1988; pp 331-337. 14. VEEN, J W VAN; ARCE ARCE, H G (1993) Situation actual y perspectives de la apicultura en Costa Rica. Proceedings of the IX National , Agronomy and Natural Resources Conference, Vol. I, Nffl 57; San Jose, Costa Rica; 8 pp. I S. WATKINS, M (1996) Resistance and its relevance to beekeeping. Bee World 77(4): 15-22.

Wall hives and wall beekeeping

EVA CRANE

In the warm temperate zone of the Old World, wall hives as well as free-standing hives have been widely used for Apis mellifera and A. cerana. Dr Eva Crane explores their distribution and the beekeeping done with them.
Within a wide latitude belt, stretching about 10 000 km from Morocco in the west to Nepal in the east, some beekeepers in the past hived bees directly into recesses built into a wall. The belt lies between about 30N and 50N (mainly between 35N and 45N), directly south of the deciduous forests where bees were tended in tree cavities. Local races of both Apis mellifera and A cerana were used in wall hives. This article explores the characteristics and use of wall hives in some twenty countries, and discusses how their use relates to the use and siting of free-standing hives. In a few countries with areas of soft rock (loess or tuff), beekeepers created hives in the rock without building a wall. They enlarged an existing cavity or made a new one for instance in a cliff face by scraping with a suitable hand tool. Examples of such hives are included at the end of regional sections below. be moved to another site', and Armbruster2 may well have been correct in suggesting that these hives were recesses built into a brick wall. The next record found was made by Ibn-elAwam who lived at Seville in Spain in the 11 OOs. He added to a description of various hives: 'Others make round or square openings in walls,... slightly inclined or converging towards the base'". A 1483 record in Cyprus is quoted in Excerpta Cypr/o. A monk, Felix Faber, entered an empty cell in a Dominican convent and noticed a wooden door that closed off a cavity in the outside wall. He opened the door, and 'immediately there burst upon me an infinite swarm of angry bees ... There was a little hole in the wall by which they entered from the garden into the cupboard.' A passage by Possot in 1532 also mentioned wall hives: 'the bees are inside the houses of the village, and on the outside of the walls they have little holes to go in and out, and the wax and honey are thus inside the houses. This is the fashion throughout the Kingdom of Cyprus.'

Early references
Johan van VeenM, Rafael A Calderon Fallas1, Ana Cubero3 and Henry G Arce Arce1 'Department of Social Insects, Ethology and Socio-ecology, Laboratory of Comparative Physiology, Utrecht University, P.O. Box. 80.086, NL-3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands 2Centro de Investigaciones Aplcolas Tropicales, Universidad Nacional, P.O. Box 4753000, Heredia, Costa Rica 'Ministerio de Agriculture, Departamento de Extensibn Apicola, Sabana Sur, Costa Rica 'Present address: PO Box 475-3000, Heredia, Costa Rica The use of wall hives dates back at least to Roman times, since Columella (c. AD 60) referred to it in the preface to his Book IX of De re rustico: 'Within our own memory accommodation for bees was provided either in holes cut in the actual walls of the villa [country house or form building], or in sheltered porticos and orchards.' In Book IX.6.2, Columella mentioned brick hives, deprecating their use because they 'cannot

General characteristics and distribution of wall hives

A wall hive is a recess built into a wall and normally closed by a door across the opening, which the beekeeper removes to take out honey combs. A small flight

In .JL

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entrance is made, either on the same side as the beekeeper's door (front-opening) or on the opposite side (back-opening). The latter arrangement enables the beekeeper to remove honey from inside a building. Front-opening hives were probably the more primitive, and the bees might have to fly in and out through cracks in the door. But sometimes these hives were the only choice, for instance if the back of the wall was blocked off or faced on to someone else's land. I have seen wall hives in use in Europe and North Africa, and in Asia for bpth A. meffifera and A. cerono. They are usually less than a metre from the ground and worked from ground level. But in two-storey houses, for instance in Spain and in Nepal, the backopening hives are above head height and are worked from a loft or bedroom. (In

addition, wall recesses have been used in Oman to accommodate colonies of A ftoreo a species which nests in the open but these are not considered here.)

Spain and France

In Galicia in north-west Spain. Chevet found a large number of back-opening hives (a/aceno, cupboard) in house walls, still in use. They were 40 cm wide and 60 cm high. and lined with wood. He also showed a colony of bees in a wall near Santiago de Compostela. In France, Masetti" found 30 houses with back-opening wall hives (ruche-p/ocord) in the commune of Peone, Alpes-Maritimes, and others in Charente-Maritime north of the Gironde estuary, where Chevet13 also described a number in houses, barns and other buildings, mostly in walls 60 cm thick. These wall hives were like those in Spain and had a similar cross-section. Some could be dated to between 1300 and 1700, and some were still in use.

Italy
Columcl'.i refolded to accommodation for bees being provided 'within our own memory' in holes cut in walls, and this suggests th.it he was familiar with them where he lived near Rome or in southern Spain. Armbruster described front-opening wall hives, each w i t h a wooden cover, near Cengnola in south-east Italy: he showed 14 in a photograph . He mentioned others in Italy, some of them 80 cm high and 50 cm wide and deep. In 1934 he reported many recesses in tuff near Brindisi in southern Italy. Wai! hives (ormo murale) were probably used in northern Italy, since two buildings near Monti d'Alba about 40 km south-east of Turin are fitted with a number which have been adapted to more modern management".

Countries bordering the western Mediterranean (Apis meffifera)

North Africa
In Saharan oases in Morocco, the honey bee is A meHifero sahariensis. Colonies were enabled to survive the diurnal temperature fluctuations by housing them in walls of the sun-dried mud used for buildings. Figure I shows hive entrances in a house wall in ElKelaa-des-Mgouna, and I was shown how a swarm was put into a hive through the larger opening at the back of the wall. Other houses there had similar hives. In Figure 2, one of several hives in a palm grove in Erfoud oasis is being opened from the front; the back of the wall faced on to a public path. Hives ran lengthways along the probably less thick wall, and the beekeeper closed the opening with narrow strips of wood and plastered them over with mud. Armbruster7 published (probably upsidedown) Baldensperger's photograph of an apiary at Ain-Sefra 'at the entrance to the Atlas-Sahara' in Algeria. Near the bottom of a stone wall were three cavities, their openings made rectangular with mortar and each closed with a board; bees flew out through cracks left open. Chevetls published a photograph of a few of the hundred or so unusual hives in Hai'dra in Tunisia, near the Algerian border. A row of parallel low stone uprights on the ground was joined up by arches moulded from chalk or limestone.

FIG. I. Courtyard of a house in EI-Kelaa-desMgouna, Morocco, showing (bottom left) flight entrances to three back-opening wall hives, I 964.

FIG. 2. Front-opening hive in a boundary wall of a palm grove. ErfouH O.IMS. Morocco. I 964.

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'it is easy to do when you are building a wall.' But very few hives contained bees I think vatroa had recently killed the rest. Part of Cappadocia in Central Anatolia is formed of volcanic tuff from an eruption of Mount Argeus long ago, and in past centuries the population carved out of this rock their houses, churches and even underground towns. In 1942 Bodenheimer'" was reliably informed that 'in ancient times the people used to make holes in the rocks, or profit from the existing ones, and settled bees in them; entrances were 3 or 4 m above ground, to guard them against theft.' In 1985 I found I I such recesses in use near Goreme which had been excavated from a 'cave' made behind a dressed rock face (fig. 7). Pechhacker and Huttinger28 mentioned wall hives in Iran.

Asia (Apis cerana)

Wall hives are still very common in the subHimalayas, from the upper Indus basin east through Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in India, as far as Nepal.

Pakistan and India

In 1944 Mullick24 found bees 'flourishing well' in wall hives in almost every village in Hazara District, now in Pakistan. In India, wall hives were common in Uttar Pradesh, and in Garhwahl district 'most of the families' kept bees in them. Hives measured by Verma32 were 30 cm wide and 45 cm high; over 150 near jeolikote in Nainital District were on average 38 cm 'long' and 25 cm 'deep'25. Near its source, the Indus runs through Ladakh, which is high above Srinagar and the Jhelum valley in Kashmir; Leh is at about 3500 m. In 1975 bees were kept in wall cavities separated by upright beams, and the wooden door of each contained the flight entrance.

FIG. 8. Gable end of a house showing the flight entrance to a back-opening wall hive for Apis cerana, at Reiiachur, near Pokhara, Nepal, 1984.

Nepal
Wall hives are also very common in Nepal, from the west to beyond Kathmandu. Where a beekeeper kept bees in horizontal log hives under the eaves as well as in wall hives, he often said that the bees wintered better in the wall hives. I was also told that the depth of a wall hive was never more than 60 cm (the distance between elbows when the arms are linked together with the forearms overlapped); the beekeeper was then able to reach all parts of the hive. Most wall hives I measured in Nepal were about 45 x 45 cm and 30 cm deep. Round Pokhara in the west, a wall hive was made usually in the south gable end when a house was built (fig. 8); there were sometimes several hives in one house. They could remain unoccupied for some time, but some beekeepers collected swarms to

put in them. Inside the cavity, wooden boards might be plastered with mud on the top surface from which the bees would build their combs. The hive was opened by a wooden door inside a room or loft When harvesting, three combs were left to encourage the colony to remain, but colonies were not fed: the beekeepers were too poor to buy sugar. Within the past few decades a hundred hives 30 cm deep were built in the brick boundary wall of the Royal Apiary at Gokarna near Kathmandu (fig. 9); they were used as bait hives for swarms which flew over in January/March.

Ninh province, and by Dao people in Ha Tuyen province. When a beekeeper harvested combs, he cut off each flush with the roof of the cavity, then cut the upper honey part away from the lower brood part; the division between the two parts is horizontal in A. cerana combs. Each piece of brood comb was replaced in the cavity, fixed in position against the roof with the aid of a forked bamboo stick (see fig. 9 in Crane et o/.'8).
-*

What we know about wall hives

Specific characteristics
What we see now are mostly vestiges from the past, and we do not know the sequence of the use of wall hives and free-standing hives in the different places where both occur.

Vietnam
I do not know of the use of wall hives farther east than Nepal, but colonies of A cerana were tended in rock cavities in at least two areas in northern Vietnam2': in Quang

FIG

7 Flight < ntrancei to hives cut in tuff, t

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January temperatures perhaps not much less than about 6C).* It seems likely that, in this latitude belt, swarms built their nests in suitable spaces within rocks and walls, and that people then adapted the bees' nest site by providing an access door and a flight entrance, and subsequently made recesses specifically for the bees. Many qf the areas with wall hives had been rather distant from the main centres of development of hive beekeeping. Almost all were in countries where the earliest freestanding hives were used horizontally and harvested from one end. But areas referred to in France (wall hives) and Hungary (excavated hives) used upright hives in known historical times. It would be interesting if the existence of wall hives could be established in areas other than those reported here, so that their distribution can be more closely examined.

that they cannot be moved, and that with the usual construction their size cannot be altered. In Spain and some other countries, long horizontal earthenware hives were embedded close together in specially constructed (very thick) walls described earlier (Crane", figs 76-80). This practice must have postdated the use of free-standing hives, but we do not know if it developed from the wall hives discussed here.

Wall hives and wall recesses for hives

At first sight it might appear that there was a close link between hiving bees directly into a wall recess and placing a free-standing hive of bees in a wall recess (bee bole), and Armbruster' believed this to be so. I do not think it was true in general, except that building a rectangular recess in a dry stone wall was itself a very ancient utilitarian practice. Crane17 published such recesses at Skara Brae in Scotland, dated to 2500-2000 BC. The two beekeeping uses of wall recesses have different geographical distributions. Most recesses for hives were buik in regions where upright hives were used, and where the climate would have been too cold for bees to survive in wall hives; Britain, Ireland, northern France and some higher parts of southern France. In general wall hives are found in warmer regions farther south which were characterized by the use of free-standing horizontal hives.

FIG 9. Well made wall hive containing a recent swarm of Apis cerono, Gokarna Royal Apiary, near Kathmandu, Nepal, 1992.

The number of wall hives found at one location varies from one to 20 or more. Where wall hives are found in a constructed wall, the wall is usually of stone (dry or mortared), but sometimes of brick. In the Sahara region sun-dried mud is the usual building material, possibly strengthened with straw. Hives were also excavated in loess or tuff, the two most common types of soft rock. Wall hives are usually rectangular, which may be the easiest shape to construct. Also, harvesting honey is easier if the upper surface is flat, and a rectangular closure is the simplest to make and to operate. Almost all wall hives are found in regions where traditional free-standing hives are horizontal, and the management of bees in them is in some ways similar to that in the free-standing hives. The thickness of the wall limits the length (depth) of a wall hive. Wall hives built recently seem to be back-opening

except where the site prevents this, as in the Cyclades where the hives are in a wall which retained the earth of a terrace at a higher level, and in the Balkans and some other areas where the hives were excavated in cliffs of loess or tuff. In Turkey the traditional, horizontal hives can be opened at the back and, unusually, so can at least some of the hives excavated in loess.

Comparison with other traditional hives

Wall hives have certain elementary benefits over free-standing hives. They are likely to be longer lasting, they provide greater security from theft and from damage by animals, and where suitable building material is available the cost can be minimal. Also, in regions where they are used, bees seem to winter better in them, probably because the material of the wall provides a thermal buffer. Back-opening wall hives share with back-opening free-standing hives the advantage that bees can be smoked off honey combs from the back of the hive at harvest time. Main disadvantages of wall hives are

Reasons for their geographical distribution

Hives in free-standing walls were necessarily restricted to areas where materials were available for building thick walls. Rainfall was not very high, and land boundaries might be protected by walls rather than by hedges or bushes. These hives, and those excavated in soft rock, are found only in a latitude belt where winters were not too cold for colonies to survive in stone or rock cavities (average

The thermal conductivity of earth materials is much higher than that of wood or other plant materials of which hives were made, for instance: sandstone l.3Wm~'K' limestone 1.5 granite 2.S wood 0.1-0.3 straw/reed thatch 0.07. 0.09

Plants for bees References

1. ANAGNOSTOPOULOS. I TH (1996) Personal communication. 2. ARMBRUSTER, L (1926) Der Bienenstand als volkerkundliches Denkmal. Biicherei fur Bienenkunde 8. 1-147. 3. ARMBRUSTER. L (1928) Die ate Bienenzucht der Alpen. Bodiere fur Bienenkunde 9: 1-184. 4. ARMBRUSTER, L (1932) Die Biene im Orient II. Bibel und Biene. Ardw fir Bienenkunde 13(1): 1-43. 5. ARMBRUSTER, L (1934) Imkerei-Betriebsformen. IV Areh/v fir Bienenkunde 15(2/3): 117-132, 6. ARMBRUSTER, L (1954) How old are English bee boles. Bee World 35(3): 50-52. 7. ARMBRUSTER, L (1957) Imkerkiinste in BienenRohren, -Urnen, -Steintunneln, -Mauern. ArchN fur Bienenkunde 34: 1-10, 13-22. 8. ARMBRUSTER, L (1970) Erdbienenzucht Imkerfreund 25(12): 353-356. 9. BIKOS, TH (1991) Personal communication. 10. BIKOS, TH (1996) [Bee boles and bee-cupboards in Andros.] Melissokomiki epitheorisi 10: 359-363; 462-466 (in Greek). 11. BIKOS, TH (1997) [Wall hives in florina.] Melissokomikiepitheorisi 11(3): 118-123 (in Greek). 12. BODENHEIMER, F S (1942) Studies on the honey bee ond beekeeping in Turkey. Numune Matbaasi; Istanbul, Turkey. 13. CHEVET, R (1988) Des niches a abeilles en Saintonge. Revue francoise d'Apicutture (478): 440-442; (47,9): 503-504. 14. CHEVET, R (1988) L'exploitation des abeilles dans les niches. Revue francoise d'Apicurture (479): 503-504. 15. CHEVET, R (1996) Apiculture en Tunisie. Revue francoise d'Apiculture (567): 460-461; (568): 504-505. 16. CLEMENT-MULLET, J J (1864) Le Km de rogriculture d'/booMwom. A L Herold; Paris, France. 17. CRANE, t (1983) The archaeology of beekeeping. Duckworth; London. UK; 360 pp. 18. CRANE, E LUYEN, V V; MULDER, V (1993) Traditional management at Apis cerana using movable-comb hives in Vietnam. Bee World 74(2): 75-85. 19. DOMACINOVIC. V (1989) Pcelarenje bei kolnica/Waldbienenzucht Vtt I, Part IJI (4 mops + pp. 9-19) of EtnoloSkj adas jugoslavije/Ethnologischer Atlas von jugoslavien. V Be/oj; T Vmicak (eds) (in Croatian and German). 20. GAUR. R D (1983/84) Resource development through bee farming in the Garhwahl Himalaya, johsard (7/8): 51-59. 21. K6GER, A (1986) Zwischen Mythen und WirkIkhkeit: Griechenland ... frnteifreund-4l(l2): 473-475. 22. MASETTI.H 1997) Personal communication. 23. MULDER, V H (1991) Traditional beekeeping using Apis cerano in Vietnam. In Kaal, j; Velthius, H H WJongeleen, F. Beetsma, J (eds) Tn> ditional bee management as a basis for beekeeping in the tropics. NECTAR; Bennekom, Netherlands; pp 61-74. 24. MULUCK, N P (1944) Honey and bee-keeping in Scriptures and after. Indian Bee Journal 6(5/6): 108-114. 25. MUTTOO, RN (1954) Bee-keeping in Ancient India. Indian Bee Journal 16(5/6): 102-106, 124. 26. NACHTSHEIM,H(l92l)NaturrohrenalsNaturbienenwohnungen. Archiv fir Bienenkunde 3(1/2): 81 + I pi. 27. NICOLAIDIS, N J (1955) Facts about beekeeping in Greece. Bee World 36(8): 141-149. 28. PECHHACKER, H; HUTTINGER, E (1995) Gedanken zur Beutenfrage. Bienemater 116(2): 60-63. 29. RUPP, K (1959) Albania meheszete. [Beekeeping in Albania.] Meheszet 7(12): 229 (in Hungarian). 30. SHOWLER, B; SHOWLER, K (1985) Notes on a beekeeping visit to Greece (unpublished). 31. TOTH, G (1981) The hivestones of Hungary. American Bee Journal 121(3): 202-203. 32. VERMA, L R (1992) Personal communication. 33. ZYNGAS, J (1991) Personal communication.

Longan: a major hone^ Thailand

SlRIWAT WONGSIRI, RATNA THAPA AND PlCHAI KONGPITAK

Fact Box
Species: Dimocarpus hngan Family: Sapindaceae Common names: lam-yai (Thailand), lungan (dragon eye) and long-yen (China & Taiwan); shek-yip (Hong Kong); lengkeng (Indonesia); mein (Laos); mata kucing (Malaysia & Brunei); nham (Philippines & Vietnam); pon-yai, chompoo (Australia); kohala, chompoo, blackball, dagelman (USA); chompoo (Hawaii, USA) Distribution: tropical and subtropical Asia; native to Asia. Main growing areas in Thailand are in the northern highlands Flowering period: late January late February; flowering period may last 4-6 weeks (dependingon cukivars, table I) in die northern part of Thailand Pollen: minor, pale yellow Value to bees: visited by five species of honey bees: Apis mellifera, A cerana, A. dorsata, A florea, and A andreniformis; as well as stingless bees (Trigona sp.). Besides these, fruit flies and butterflies also visit for nectar Honey: fresh honey from cultivated species of D. longan is pale yellow in colour with a fine flavour and strong pleasant aroma.

Descripti<

Three kinds of lo (wild species), ni and commercial I are widely founc Thailand. Dimocai subspecies and throughout Asia a cial scale in Chiai Rai and Lampan (table I). Scande obtusus), a wild sp in the mountaino part of Thailand.

... Eva Crane

^ -,_,...

iFormerty Director of IBRA, Wbodside House, Wfoodside Hill. Gerrards Cross I Bucks SL9 9TE, UK

Other uses: fruit; old trees (> 40 years) are used for timber and fuel-wood. The large seeds are used for ornamental purposes.

Longan trees are and grow to betwe trees are cultivated ly branched, uprif bark of the longan of litchi (LJtchi chin highly susceptible winds. The leaves a and paripinnate wi opposite leaflets. glossy dark green o paler on the lower < are terminal, erect, v up to 30 cm. There; in each dichasium, I middle develops into small and yellow bro I). Longan flowers ai tillate or hermaphro' flowers may be borr Major pollinators of dorsata and A cerana imported in 1970).