>Date:    Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:02:55 -0500
 >From:    James Fischer <[log in to unmask]>

 >Much longer than hundreds of years - thousands.
 >I'd call 75-100 hives in one yard a "high-density apiary".
 >Better yet, it was even an "urban" apiary, right in town.

Yup man has been keeping them for a very long time.  I was keeping to  
the present as a 100 traditional log hives (dejebbah) in N.. Africa  
for example just do not have the colony size or numbers as a single  
apiary of 50 hives.

I spend about three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in beekeeping in  
Tunisia.  I was in the mountains (Tell Bee) working with farmers that  
had bees--usually the grandfather.

They had the traditional log hives.  And already had Varroa (probably  
brought into the country from Yugoslavia by commercial beekeepers  
importing stock down in the citrus groves near the N. coast)  anyhow  
One of the bigger traditional farmers I met had a stack of over two  
hundred hives. The stacks were covered with hay to provide protection  
from water in the winter & the heat of the N. African summers.  Rarely  
were all the hives full ( a cylinder 9-12  inches X tree foot long)   
and even if they were there would not be the numbers of bees or  
harvest seen from a modern hive.

Don't openly dismiss the management skills beekeepers from whatever era.

One thing that really impressed me was that these old Hadj's (old  
gentleman beekeepers) was their insight into bees.  They probably  
could not read or write  but their observations were dead on.  They  
could observe the entrance & identify the health of a colony &  
determine if it was queen right, diseased or identify wether a flow  
was on etc.  They had the time to lounge amongst the bees & watch &  
ponder-something that we do nt have the luxury of today. I know I don't.

They were also beekeepers in every sense, trying new & innovative  
activities like feeding--dryed milk or powdered chickpeas.  Not  
knowing the science behind it, they understood the colony needed  
additional protein, not just sugar.

Their management usually revolved around catching swarms--as the tell  
bee would cast huge numbers of swarms.  I saw one dejebah one  
afternoon throw about 16.  The last was about the size of a  
tangerine.  The Hadj sent the grandson off with directions to catch as  
many as he could.  This kid would come running back after each catch  
(about 8 or 9) and the bees would be stuck in a dark shed off the main  
house awaiting dusk to then be placed  in an empty dejebbah in the  
stack.

Numbers were more important than individual colony strength--that was  
perhaps one of the biggest obstacles I kept running into. That & the  
ministry wanted everything in a Modern hive and there was not the  
infrastructure to maintain modern beekeeping ( in the hills where I  
was anyway)  Now the commercial beekeepers down at the coast were  
beholden to a whole different set of values--they were migratory  
beekeepers with good stainless equipment from europe & good italian or  
yugoslavian stock also imported.

This was 25 years ago--but I bet there has been less change than has  
been seen here in the US as life is slower & change much less accepted  
in Tunisia.

Thanx for the forum to rambler
Mike

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