Beekeeping educational trail Bohinj

Presentation of making honey products.

Tasting of honey products.

Presentation of making honey products.

Tasting of honey products.

Beekeeper Drago Kotnik – Bohinjska Češnjica

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He started beekeeping in 1980 with two beehives. Currently, he owns 90 beehives in 4 apiaries. He transports 5 beehives to pasture in many different places in Slovenia. His offer includes various types of honey, propolis, pollen and honey beverages: honey schnapps, honey liqueur, non-alcohol honey beverages and sparkling honey schnapps.

bohinjska češnjica

bitnje

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brod

2 ”Čučkov čebelnjak” Apiary

Tasting of honey

Presentation of a bee colony, observing bees in an observation beehive. Bee diseases and the activities of the Beekeepers’ Association of Bohinj, the Beekeepers’ Association of Gorenjska and the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association

Information and reservations: Turizem Triglavska cesta 30 SI - 4264 Bohinjska Bistrica, tel: +386 (0)4 57 47 590 e-mail: info@bohinj.si, www.bohinj.si Text: Drago Kotnik and Andrej Rožič Foto: Mitja Sodja Sources: “Bohinjski muharji” by Mišo Serajnik

Honey products

Beekeepers’ Association of Bohinj

Beekeeping educational trail Bohinj

Beekeeping in Bohinj – History Beekeeping in Bohinj has quite a tradition. Considering the sharp climate in Bohinj, beekeeping has not developed with the aim of harvesting honey, but it has always aimed at selling honey bee colonies and queen bees.

Luka Porenta, who was a priest in the village of Srednja vas from 1823 to 1882, would even today be considered as an important beekeeper, since he maintained from 100 to 300 beehives. We can also conclude that his activities mostly aimed at selling bees. Since the need for quality queen bees was increasing, the first queen bee breeders emerged.

The trade with swarms and queen bees flourished from May until July. After the concluded buckwheat pasture, which enabled the harvest of honey, beekeepers sold their excess bee colonies at a fair, which was organised in Kranj between 1 and 4 August. The buyers were mostly honey and wax producers. Bees were sulphurated, honey and wax were taken from beehives. The fair mostly took place at the end of the 19th century, later on it slowly lost on importance.

Martin Humek worked as a teacher and headmaster at the elementary school in Bohinjska Bistrica from 1890 to 1908. As a fruit grower, he had always emphasised that there is no fruit without bees.

Jan Strgar – Šprahov from Bitnje was one of his students. He was enthused by beekeeping, and before reaching 20 years of age, he was already a successful seller of bees and queen bees.

Since the needs for bee colonies and quality queen bees were increasing, thus exceeding his abilities to maintain his activity, he assembled a few beekeepers and upon his initiative, the Bohinjska Bistrica Beekeepers’ Association was established at the elementary school in Bohinjska Bistrica. The trade was very successful and presented an extra source of income for many people of Bohinj. New apiaries for the breeding of queen bees emerged. In 1911, the bees from Bohinj even flew to India, Australia, Japan, the Caucasus and Siberia. This presented a world record in bees flying large distances.

After the death of Jan Strgar in 1955, new beekeepers emerged in Bohinj, who had bred queen bees for quite some time. However, the trade slowly disappeared; therefore, the today’s beekeepers are breeding queen bees for their own needs.

Jakob Mencinger, mill owner, who was born in 1796. It is assumed that the apiary was built by Jakob’s father, since it was renovated for the first time in 1830, which was almost certainly performed

by Jakob. The mill was bought by Jakob Čuden in 1907, since his own house in Bistrica had burnt down; therefore, the beekeeping activity was taken over by his son Franc, born in 1905. He was enthused over beekeeping mostly by Jan Strgar from Bitnje. Franc had been active in beekeeping until 1992. When he died in 1994, almost two-hundred-year tradition of beekeeping ended in this area.

His granddaughter had preserved her granddad’s work for some time after his death, however, she had many obligations at school; therefore, she was not able to continue with beekeeping for a long time. The apiary was renovated in the years 2008 and 2009 by the Municipality of Bohinj, Žiga Zois Bohinj Museum Association and Bohinj Beekeepers’ Association. The renovated apiary was officially opened on 29 May 2009.

Presentation of a bee colony, observing bees in an observation beehive. Bee diseases and the activities of the Beekeepers’ Association of Bohinj, the Beekeepers’ Association of Gorenjska and the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association

Beekeeper Rožič Andrej - Brod Already as a young boy, Andrej often observed his neighbour Jože Sušnik at beekeeping. In 1993, Andrej and his friend erected the first beehive. Since his friend no longer had the ability to keep bees, Andrej continued on his own. He built a new apiary along the Močnik brook that is located between the villages of Brod and Bitnje. He has 12 beehives and a few spare colonies. As a hobby and for his own needs, he also breeds queen bees. His beekeeping activities include the harvest of honey, propolis, pollen and wax.

”Čučkov čebelnjak” Apiary

Presentation of Apiary

Carniolan bee

Bees on honeycomb

”Čučkov čebelnjak” Apiary The Čučkov čebelnjak Apiary is an important beekeeping and cultural heritage of Bohinj and Slovenia. This is the second oldest apiary in Slovenia, which was renovated for the first time in 1830; therefore, experts have every right to conclude that it had been built already before 1800 and that it is more than two hundred years old. Since 1992, this apiary has not served its purpose, but it has kept its original interior and is an interesting cultural monument. There are no reliable data on who erected the Čučkov čebelnjak apiary in Bitnje.

The census from 1848 shows that this part of land was owned by