The culture of beekeeping in trees encompasses knowledge, skills, practices, rituals, beliefs, and beliefs related to the cultivation of wild bees in hives on trees or logs located in forest areas. Beekeepers practice beekeeping in a unique way, as they take care of bees to keep their natural habitats, and they don't intend to intensify honey production.
In medieval Europe, collecting honey was a practice taken directly from beekeeping practices. The beekeepers would look for large trees with native bees and cut pieces of the tree into protective wooden boards with flight entrances, so the bees would have easy access and could be protected from predators and bad weather.
In Torun, there were five permanent magistrates of beekeeping from the 15th century to 1733 where forest beekeeping was regulated, and these countries were abandoned by the endless conflicts of the Teutonic Knights in the 14th and 15th centuries. They still have older generations who lived close to Augustów Forest who remember a few beehives that still stand in the forest and also how their fathers taught about beekeeping inside tree hives.
Because of Belarus's geographical location, beekeeping has been important since at least the Middle Ages. This country was a crossroads for traders. So the two confederate states combined cover about 900,000 km2 and beekeeping became an integral part of the economy and society. So both countries share a common history, heritage, and culture.
It fosters a sense of belonging to the community and shared consciousness of our responsibility to the environment by keeping bees on trees. Moreover, the bloody wars between the 17th and 18th centuries significantly reduced the population, which in turn resulted in the decline of the beekeeping profession. The advent of new technologies and the wood processing industry forced beekeepers to become extinct.
Some beekeepers believe they had magical knowledge that allowed them to protect the beehive from thieves and remain unharmed during extreme ascents and descents from the tree. Today, modern beekeepers get their knowledge from wild hives from their fathers or grandfathers by inheritance.
Hopefully, through the workshops that can allow participants to learn from each other through group activities, tree beekeeping could foster a sense of belonging to the community, as well as the responsibility we all have towards the environment.