Celebrating World Bee Day - The Apiary in the Dry Stone Wall

To mark World Bee Day we recall an interesting and valuable story about beekeeping on Vis, where even bees had their own small stone space.

In ethnographic records from Podhumlje, an apiary enclosed by a dry stone wall was described, with a gate that could be locked. Within such a space, there were beehives with movable frames and two small wooden houses intended for beekeeping tasks – honey extraction, comb making, jar filling, and tool storage.

In professional studies of beekeeping in Croatia in the early 1990s, Vis is mentioned as an island with good natural prerequisites for beekeeping, primarily due to its mild climate and rich Mediterranean vegetation, especially rosemary, sage, and heather.

The story was further enriched by comments from local residents. According to Branko Gracin's testimony, there were four beekeepers in Podhumlje – two stationary and two who seasonally moved their hives to locations suitable for bee pasturage. The stationary beekeepers were Petar Pribačić and Petar Gracin, while the migratory beekeepers were Ivan Marinković Mulić and Vicko Gracin. A particularly interesting piece of information is that all apiaries were located among dry stone walls.

Additionally, it was noted that Petar Pribačić had several stone beehives made from stone slabs and also attempted to construct concrete beehives, but he gave up on that because such hives could not maintain a suitable temperature in winter.

These details from local memory show how deeply beekeeping on Vis was connected to the landscape, climate, and traditional construction. It was not separate from the environment, but rather nestled among dry stone walls, gardens, maquis shrubland, rosemary, sage, and heather – where nature and human labor constantly intertwine.

That's why on World Bee Day, we don't just celebrate honey. We also celebrate bees as small guardians of the island landscape, pollinators that connect wild plants, fields, gardens, and people.

Because Vis honey isn't made only in the hive.
It's made in the landscape.