Lithuanian Collector Coins LITHUANIAN NATURE Tree beekeeping

Denomination: €1.50 Edge of the coin: rimmed Denomination: €10 On the edge of the coin: stylised images of bees Information at the Bank of : Lithuanian Collector Coins +370 5 268 0316 © Lietuvos bankas, 2020 [email protected] www.lb.lt Brochure designed by Liudas Parulskis Metal: Cu/Ni alloy Quality: unc Metal: Silver Ag 925 Quality: proof Purchase at: Photo credits: Selemonas Paltanavičius www.coins.lb.lt Diameter: 27.50 mm Weight: 11.10 g Diameter: 34.00 mm Weight: 23.30 g

Mintage: 30,000 pcs Mintage: 2,500 pcs

Designed by Vytautas Narutis Designed by Vytautas Narutis Printed by UAB INDIGO print Issued in 2020 Issued in 2020 Coins minted at www.indigoprint.lt the Lithuanian Mint Published by the Bank of Lithuania www.lithuanian-mint.lt Gedimino pr. 6, 01103 Vilnius Attributes of a beekeeper

BUZZING Preparing the geinys Given that forest logging was very common during periods of historical changes and turmoil, how did these hollows survive to this day, safe from harm BEES IN and untouched by ill-willed people? One of the versions is that local people forbid destroying hollows, as they still might have remembered the sweet taste TREE of honey from those hives. This could be evidenced by the fact that in the Dainava forest, where a railroad for transporting lumber was built through the Jogaila Hill, HOLLOWS several pine trees with hollows remained untouched. Another equally important stage of preservation of pine hollows was legal protection of such trees. In 1960, twenty-eight hollow pine trees in the Dainava Sometimes the hollows are forest and two oak trees were named Monuments of Nature. Such status ensured 6–10 metres high their protection, but could not slow the passage of time and improve their condition – the old pines with their remaining hollows have already exceeded their species-specific lifespan. Already in 1929, Poland announced the extinction of the tree beekeeping tradition. Yet this never happened in Lithuania – to this day, remain the only nation in to have preserved this ancient legacy. The evidence of the archaic beekeeping tradition and trees with hollow hives can still be found The rope of the …and up in the regions of Poland and that border with Lithuania, although real geinys is wrapped the tree the around the pine beekeeper Belarus (the regions of Grodno and Lida), the called tree hollows for bees) were associated by hollows carved into living trees exist only in Lithuania. Colony of bees in a tree hollow trunk… climbs profession of a hollow-maker (called bartininkas) with the local Lithuanians, referred to To find hollow pines, one should travel to the Dainava forest in Varėna region. was attributed solely to Lithuanians. The as borciak or dravininkas. At the edge of the village of Musteika, there is an exhibit on tree beekeeping, with Bees, along with their honey, wax, propolis and to the person who found them. Even in a Lithuanian surnames Bartininkas and Bartninkas In the old days, tree hollows were often a several-kilometre-long hiking trail where one can see and hear bees buzzing in other hive products, have been an integral part stranger’s forest this right of ownership used as well as such place names as Bartininkai in plundered by bears and thus people came up tree hollows. Employees of the Dzūkija National Park can demonstrate all of the Tree hollow hives in of human life since ancient times. The goods Musteika, Varėna to be ensured by leaving a family mark Kazlų Rūda municipality, Bartninkai in Jurbarkas with all sorts of simple yet clever ways to protect tools used by tree beekeepers. brought by bees have always been used as district on the tree. Stealing honey or plundering region, and two Bartininkai villages in Šilutė their hives – they would hang up blocks to impede In 2019, having conducted thorough This is sweet treats and medicine as well as helped other hollows was an unimaginable crime. region derived from the word bartininkas. Later, climbing the tree and dug stakes into the ground what tree studies, scientists from the Nature mankind develop the first economic relations If this were to happen, the thieves would be At the right height, sitting on a hanging Southern Lithuania became the last part of with the sharp end facing upwards. beekeeping Research Centre in Lithuania announced is like through trade. the territory of Lithuania and Poland was first severely punished. Later, people started plank, the craftsman would make a meter- the country where bartininkai and bee hollows More modern times were not as favourable that they had discovered surviving The early roots of beekeeping – the pur- mentioned in 13th-century historical sources, carving artificial hollows. These were the first long vertical hole in the pine tree’s trunk, could still be found. It was long influenced by for tree beekeeping – about a century ago, families of native dark honey bees poseful and organised care of bees and the while since the 14th century beekeeper rights primitive hives where honey bees could live. covering it with a same-width yet slightly the Slavic languages, which is evidenced by the beekeepers would cut down a tree with a hollow (Apis mellifera mellifera) which had use of their products for personal consump- and protection of tree hollows have been People not only prepared these hollows but shorter (leaving room for bees to come in place names, marking not only the beekeeper and bring the log back to their farmsteads. Others lived in Lithuania as long as 1000 tion – are difficult to trace. Nevertheless, honey discussed in a broad range of documents. also protected and harvested them for honey and out) wooden plug, called a plautas. villages, but also where Lithuanians lived. would hollow out logs to make peculiar hives, years ago. Being the oldest fossils have been found in amber dating back This right was fully enshrined in the Statutes and wax. This was one of the very few special When examining hollows and collecting This was because the two identities – craft where bees could live as if in a real tree, able to species of bees in the country, 30 million years, dug up on the coast of Jutland of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (dating back beekeeping “tricks” known by our ancestors. honey, such plugs used to be removed. It and nationality – were often interchangeable. build honeycombs and bring honey. The fate of they are frost-resistant and and Semba. It is also known that honey was to 1529, 1566 and 1588). Destruction of a tree The hollows would be prepared by was not an easy task for beekeepers to work For example, the village of Pelesa was called tree beekeeping and hollows was sealed by frame very active even in poor already used as food in the Stone Age, while hollow was punishable with a fine of 60–300 beekeepers – bee swarms were enticed with with such hives – bees made honeycombs Borcianska Peliasa (beekeepers’ Pelesa). beehives that made this occupation much easier. honey-harvesting conditions. 6000 years ago bees were kept in Egypt. In the Lithuanian groschen, while plundering a a small piece of honeycomb or wax. It was no in their own way, thus they had to be cut out Beekepers were often seen as unique people The end of the 19th century saw the appearance These bees are medium-sized, 4th century BCE, Hippocrates delved into the hollow and stealing the honey could earn a small feat to make a hollow. They were carved and this would ruin the natural order of bees. and were highly respected – a Belarusian who of the first frame hives which entirely changed the can survive the winter with a low benefits of honey, and in the early CE Pliny the penalty of up to 600 groschen. out at a height of 10–15 metres in thick pine Beekeepers have always been held wanted to boast about his Lithuanian bride, face of beekeeping. Little by little, they replaced honey supply and swarm several Elder described the spread of beekeeping in Beekeeping first started in natural trees, and working under such conditions was in high esteem. In southern Lithuania, in the words of the prominent Lithuanian tree stump and log hives and eventually almost times per year – these are the qualities the Roman Empire. hollows – upon discovering one in a tree, really difficult. The tree was climbed with a the Dainava forest – which was the last academic Tadas Ivanauskas, would say that he all natural hollows were abandoned. Those that that helped them live on to this day. In Lithuania, bees have been kept for at the bees living in a woodpecker’s hollow special device made from a braided rope or stronghold of tree beekeeping – as well as married a borcianočka – a beekeeper maiden are still inhabited by bees are the last remnants of least 1000 years. The beekeeping tradition in and the honey they brought would belong elk skin cuttings, which was called a geinys. in the northern territories of modern-day (bartininkaitė). Dravės (what people in this region the tree beekeeping era. Selemonas Paltanavičius