Visit to Ancient Beekeeping Museum

Our last "bee" event took place as a visit to the Museum of Ancient Beekeeping.  It was a fascinating place, full of sculptures of wooden images of beekeepers and pagan bee gods.  The hives were in tree trunks like those of Romas.

Here is an article from Bee Culture about Lithuanian bee culture and the bee museum.

Here's a slide show.  I haven't put any captions on the items yet - it's been a long day and a half of posting photos - but I'll do that later.  For now, you can probably figure out what everything is.




Created with flickr slideshow.
We ended our Lithuanian beekeeping tour with a dinner at a restaurant in Vilnius.  Simona who set the tour up, joined us and we got to recap our experience with her.  It was delightful and I am so glad that we went.  I grabbed a random citizen on the street as we returned to the van and had him take a photo of all of us together on the last day.

Visit to a Lithuanian Bee Supply Store: Wilara

Visit to a Lithuanian Bee Supply Store: Wilara, a set on Flickr.

We don't even have a bee supply place like this in Atlanta. You can get some supplies from Buster's Bees in Jonesboro or drive to Pigeon Mountain Trading Company in Chattanooga, but there is no real bee supply place here. I did go to Brushy Mountain when EAS was in Boone, NC, but that is the only supply store I've visited in eight years of beekeeping!

You may have noticed that my slide shows have changed.  Google's Picasa no longer makes slide shows or embeds them.  Flickr is my new choice.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Nine Honey Apiary Visit near the border of Latvia

Nine Honey Apiary Visit near the border of Latvia, a set on Flickr.  To see the slides with labels, click here.  To see the slides, look at the slide below.

The pictures tell the story of this lovely visit to another apiary in Lithuania. This apiary is very near the border of Latvia. We went to their bees and watched them take frames of honey for harvest. We had fun talking to them about bees and getting the feel for their beekeeping approaches.

Like Solys, they also use chemicals in their hives. They treat with Amitraz every two or three years. They have about 30 hives in their apiary.

If you click on a slide, you can see the label.

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Candle Making Workshop in Rumsiskes, Lithuania.

Candle Making Workshop in Rumsiskes, Lithuania., a set on Flickr - click on the link at the beginning of the sentence to see the slides instead of these small thumbnails.

On the third day of our Lithuanian tour we went to the historic community open air museum near Rumsiskes. The area is set up in fragments of villages. It was established in 1966 and is a wonderful depiction of Lithuanian life with 140 buildings, flower gardens, orchards, etc.

We were lucky to get to take a candle making workshop and each of us got to try the old-fashioned way of pouring candles.

We discovered that the wax has to be kept at a relatively low temperature - I think wax melts at 140 degrees F. If it gets warmer than that, it won't harden on the wick and just slides right back down into the bowl.

In the end you get a candle that is long and pretty, but a little out of shape. A rolling pin/board is then used to even it up and to make an end for a candle holder.

We each went away with a candle and had a great time - not to mention a really good lunch of traditional food. To see the labels on the slide, click on each individual slide.
Created with flickr slideshow.