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The threat of the Asian hornet, and more notably, the environmental impact of pesticides have surely raised public consciousness of the dangers of bee mortality and the deadly consequences of their extinction to the planet.
In connection with bees and beekeeping, let us review a former custom, vanished sometime between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, according to which house bees were to be told of the death of their keeper. We are of course talking about a time when most farmsteads kept honeybees.
Telling the bees. Photograph taken from Gure Herria [Our People]. Euskal Biblioteka. Labayru Fundazioa.
Bee on willow catkin. Sergio González Ahedo.
Years ago beehives were kept on most farms. Honeybees were highly respected, appreciated and loved for their honey and wax.
So much so that whoever got rid of a swarm of bees would have an arm amputated, as older folk from the Valley of Carranza (Bizkaia) used to say. This ancient thought still lives in the memory of our elders, who thus would never destroy a hive. A similar belief that bee and honey thieves were punished by removal of their right arms entered the folklore of some localities in Álava. (more…)
Bilbo-Abando
Colon de Larreategi, 14 – 2. esk.48001 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 443 76 84
labayru@labayru.eus
Derio
Larrauri, 1A - 5.a48160 Derio (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 406 01 71
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Bilbo-Bolueta
Metroalde eraikinaBilbo-Galdakao errep., 6A
48004 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 607 72 10
labayru@labayru.eus
