Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Slovenia's most cherished folk arts. Replicas of these panels are sold in souvenir shops na-
tionwide, but these are the real deal.
Cost and Hours:
€3, good English descriptions, €1.60 English guidebook is a nice
souvenir; May-Oct Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, closed Mon; March-April and Nov-Dec Wed
and Sat-Sun 10:00-12:00 & 15:00-17:00, Tue and Thu-Fri 8:00-15:00, closed Mon; Jan-
Feb Tue-Fri 8:00-15:00, closed Sat-Mon; upstairs at Linhartov trg 1, tel. 04/532-0520,
Visiting the Museum:
Everything is well-described in English, but this commentary
will help you locate the highlights.
The
first room
ofthemuseumtracesthehistoryofbeekeeping,fromthetimewhenbees
werekeptinhollowed-outtreestothepresentday.Thebustcelebratesbeekeeperextraordin-
aire Anton Janša. On the nearby wall, you'll see excerpts from his first-ever textbook on
beekeeping, as well as documents from other VIBs (very important beekeepers).
In the
second room
are old-fashioned tools. When a new queen bee is born, the old
queen takes half the hive's bees to a new location. Experienced beekeepers used the long,
skinny instrument (a beehive stethoscope) to figure out when the swarm was working up a
steady buzz, indicating they were ready to fly the coop. Then, once the bees had moved to
a nearby tree, the beekeeper used the big spoons to retrieve the queen—surrounded by an
angryballofhersubjects—fromhernewhomebeforeshecouldgetsettledin.Thebeekeep-
er transferred the furious gang into a manmade hive designed for easier, more sanitary col-
lection of honey. You can also see the tools beekeepers used to create smoke, which makes
bees less aggressive. Even today, some of Slovenia's old-fashioned beekeepers simply light
up a cigarette and blow smoke on any bees that get ornery. The life-size model of a man
carrying a box on his back illustrates how dedicated beekeepers would trudge uphill with
their hives to help them reach higher and higher blossoms as the summer wore on. You'll
also see a variety of old beehives (and a press used to squeeze every last drop of honey out
of that comb), as well as photos of apiaries—large, freestanding buildings that house mul-
tiple hives. The map on the wall shows how the Carniolan bee—favored by beekeepers for
its relatively mellow personality and fast growth in springtime—has been exported far and
wide throughout the world, thanks to its adaptability to new climates.
Slovenian Beekeeping
Slovenia seems to do small things in a big way—and when it comes to agriculture,
what form of livestock could be smaller than a bee?
