Traditional management of Apis cerana using movable-comb hives in Vietnam
Author(s)
Eva Crane, Vu Van Luyen And Vincent Mulder
Abstract
Systems of movable-comb beekeeping, using hives that have top-bars but not complete frames, are fairly widely used today for Apis mellifera. They were based on Sir George Wheler's 1682 description of such a hive in Greece, but we do not know when this was first developed, or where. The Greek hives, shaped like a round waste-paper basket, are furnished with bars of appropriate lengths across the open top. The top-bars are curved on the underside and spaced at the bees' natural comb spacing, so that bees build a comb down from each top-bar. The use of these hives may have arisen by accident - rather than through logical argument as to their benefits - when a traditional horizontal pottery hive was stood upright on its closed end, with the open top covered, as suggested by Ifantidis
