Casera d'abelles (traditional beehive)

What is

The traditional Mallorcan beehive. It is said homemade, caera or caiera (DCVB, Mall.). In Catalonia it is said arna or rusc; In Mallorca arna is above all the moth, also the one that eats the landlady's honeycombs.

How is

• Cylinder (or smooth cone trunk) of canya esquerdes (strips of split cane).
• About six spans long by one span in diameter (≈ 1.2 m × 0.2 m).
• The strips are glued with a mixture of clay, straw dust and ox dung.
• At each end, a marès lid: the fonell (DCVB, Mall.).

How is fa

• The reed is woven or tied into a tube and smeared with the mixture.
• They cover their mouths with two slabs of marès.
• They are placed lying down in rows: the banc d'abelles (set of hives).

Com s'usa

• The bees build the bresca (comb) inside. According to her address, the landlady has a name:
• homemade redona: honeycombs parallel to the fonells (on a disk);
• homemade llarguera: honeycombs lengthwise;
• homemade bescuncera: diagonal combs (DCVB).
• Full homemade: bees and honeycombs from fonell to fonell.
• He is castrated by removing a fonell (procedure, to be verified).
• Mallorcan swarm rule: if a swarm is more than 80 steps from a house or bank, it belongs to whoever finds it; If it is closer, it is from the owner of the bank (Alcover, Rondaies II, DCVB).

Vocabulary

• homemade / caera / caiera — colmena (Mall.).
• fonell — marès cover.
• banc d'abelles — apiary.
• bresca — honeycomb; bresca rodona, llarguera, bescunsera (Manacor, Llucmajor), travessera (Artà).
• bresca abegotera — of drones; bresca de sac — without honey (Manacor); walled bresca — sealed with wax (Mall.).
• eixam — swarm. «Eixam de maig, jo me'n vaig» — the May one no longer stays (Mall.).
• homemade (Mall.) - also the protector of reeds around a young tree: "unes cayeres enllistonades... en ets abras de la Rambla" (Ignor., DCVB).

History

• 13th century: Llull speaks of “un buc de abelles, qui era ple de bresques” (Fèlix, DCVB).
• Early 20th century: Alcover and the DCVB describe the homemade cane with marès fonells.
• Today: beekeepers recover the black abella of Mallorca (Dotze Reines project and others; please check details). The cane house is no longer used (so check if any remain).

On veure'n

• Remains in the Son Maixella area (between Valldemossa, Esporles, Palma and Bunyola), studied by the UIB (to verify if they are made of canya or stone).
• Museum of Mallorca, ethnological section (Wall) (to be verified).

Why is it design

• Field waste hive: cane, mud, straw and dung.
• Two identical doors: the cylinder opens at both ends.
• A form that organizes the bees: the honeycomb takes its name according to the landlady.
• Rule of 80 steps: a proprietary design about something that flies.

For the project

• Reconstruct a farmhouse with cane and marès: exhibition and workshop piece.
• Collaborate with black abella beekeepers.

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=casera
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=bresca
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=eixam
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=arna

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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