Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Getting Dramatic About Beekeeping

With apologies for its irrelevance to many of you, I wanted to flag a performance of note to beekeepers in the Mid-Altantic Region, as well as a chance to help a fellow beekeeper "dramatically" raise awareness about beekeeping and its history.

A long-time beekeeper I know named Marc Hoffman will present a one-hour, one-man show called "Bee Man" concerning the life of L.L. Langstroth as part of the Washington, DC Capital Fringe Festival on July 17, 19, 20, 24, 25, and 27 in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of the city. His website for the production is www.lorenzolangstroth.com (is that a cool URL or what?) In case you were not aware, the bicentennial of the inventor of the movable frame hive is 2010, and I'm kind of hoping Marc's production will work out and perhaps travel in celebration of that anniversary.

If you are in the Washington, DC area, the production could still use a couple of volunteer hands (especially for the last three performances). It's not a big commitment, as the show is really short, and the venue is really tiny, and it's just a little fringe festival, after all! If you'd like to help, let me know and I will put you in touch.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Langstroth did NOT invent the movable frame hive. He combined movable frames with the concept of bee space. I am not trying to belittle Langstroth's impact on beekeeping, just trying to set the record straight.

You could say that Langstroth invented the "modern" beehive. He absolutely did not invent movable frames.

IxNiLaTiS said...

Movable frames were used in ancient Greece. Beehives were made of earthen round flowerpot like container. Above they placed wooden laths in which the bees built the frames. Veeeeery simple …

IxNiLaTiS said...

In the next links, you can see photographs of copies of ancient Greek beehives that were found in Corinthus (Korinthos) and in Crete. The only difference is that the wooden bars leaned on the flowerpot and not inside, and the earthen lid it stepped on the wooden bars.

Best wishes from Hellas (Greece) :)

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/6554/ancientgreekbeehive2.jpg

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9246/ancientgreekbeehive.jpg

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/6434/ancientgreekbeehive3.jpg