[HN Gopher] Slovenia's beautiful beehives turn apiaries into art
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       Slovenia's beautiful beehives turn apiaries into art
        
       Author : Thevet
       Score  : 86 points
       Date   : 2023-10-02 02:50 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
        
       | nlunbeck wrote:
       | > You'll go out and take care of the bees, have some bread and
       | wine and cheese, and take a nap
       | 
       | I visited an apiary in Slovenia a few years back, and they were
       | testing out "bee therapy". There was a room with a bed next to
       | the beehive wall, and visitors could pay to take a 90 min nap
       | surrounded by buzzing bees. It was thought to provide relief for
       | depression. Wish I had tried it, the buzzing echoed really nicely
       | when you were inside.
        
       | klelatti wrote:
       | About twenty years ago I hosted a group of business visitors from
       | Slovenia in the U.K. and was surprised to receive a beehive panel
       | as a 'thank you' at the end of the meeting. It was a lovely gift
       | and I still have the panel.
        
       | beardicus wrote:
       | if you're into bees and visual stimulation, i collected a bunch
       | of beehive art and beekeeping related art and design a few years
       | back on tumblr:
       | 
       | https://iseebees.tumblr.com
        
       | sdfasdf321 wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | myshpa wrote:
       | That eternit/asbestos roof in the first picture ... no, thank
       | you.
       | 
       | Another article about Slovenia's beekeepers:
       | https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/business/beekeeping-compa...
       | 
       |  _"If you overcrowd any space with honey bees, there is a
       | competition for natural resources, and since bees have the
       | largest numbers, they push out other pollinators, which actually
       | harms biodiversity," he said, after a recent visit to the B &B
       | bees. "I would say that the best thing you could do for honey
       | bees right now is not take up beekeeping."_
       | 
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41271-5
       | 
       |  _Honeybees disrupt the structure and functionality of plant-
       | pollinator networks_
       | 
       |  _... results show that beekeeping reduces the diversity of wild
       | pollinators and interaction links in the pollination networks ...
       | High-density beekeeping in natural areas appears to have lasting,
       | more serious negative impacts on biodiversity than was previously
       | assumed._
       | 
       | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.76795...
       | 
       |  _The Diversity Decline in Wild and Managed Honey Bee Populations
       | Urges for an Integrated Conservation Approach_
       | 
       |  _Using honey bees as an example, we argue that several
       | management practices in beekeeping threaten genetic diversity in
       | both wild and managed populations, and drive population decline._
       | 
       | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7708548/
       | 
       |  _Why bees are critical for achieving sustainable development_
       | 
       |  _Bees comprise ~ 20 000 described species across seven
       | recognised families ... Fifty bee species are managed by people,
       | of which around 12 are managed for crop pollination ... Wild bees
       | contribute an average of USD$3 251 ha-1 to the production of
       | insect-pollinated crops, similar to that provided by managed
       | honey bees_
       | 
       | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5722319/
       | 
       |  _Do managed bees have negative effects on wild bees?_
       | 
       |  _The majority of reviewed studies reported negative effects of
       | managed bees_
       | 
       | https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2021/Ju...
       | 
       |  _"Keeping honey bees to 'save the bees' is like raising chickens
       | to save birds."_
       | 
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01847-3
       | 
       |  _Greater bee diversity is needed to maintain crop pollination
       | over time_
        
         | kdmccormick wrote:
         | Not challenging your overall point, but your nwf link
         | specifically calls out the introduction of extra _non-native_
         | pollinators as a problem, and explains that honeybees were
         | brought over from Europe and thereforr aren 't native to North
         | America. The original article is describing honeybeekeepers
         | specifically in Slovenia.
        
           | myshpa wrote:
           | True ... but whether they are native or not, their effect on
           | wild pollinators is the same.
        
           | nemo wrote:
           | Honeybees aren't native to Europe or the Americas, they
           | originated in Asia. In any habitat at all, keeping honeybees
           | is actually adding some strain to local ecosystems. Honeybees
           | are voracious nectar drinkers, once they're hit a habitat it
           | can support fewer native bees, moths, butterflies, beetles,
           | etc.
        
             | Swizec wrote:
             | Were bees introduced into Europe from Asia? We have
             | evidence of domesticated bees in Egypt circa 2600BC.
             | 
             | Not to mention rock art of honey collection from bees
             | dating back to 7000BC in Spain.
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_honey_bee#Domestica
             | t...
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-02 23:00 UTC)