Yesterday I described the Bienenhaus (bee house) at the Swiss Historical Village in New Glarus, Wisconsin. Today I am providing PDFs of four resources from their archives. Thanks again to the folks at the Swiss Historical Village for access to these materials.
Their bee house was donated by the Barth family and in the archive materials, I did find an advertisement for Barth Honey, pictured to the left.
As they are Swiss resources, they are in German. The architectural plans are understandable, though, if you hope to build your own bee house. If you use these plans and would like help with translations, please contact me. Also, anyone using these plans to build or inspire their own bee house would be encouraged to share that project with us to be featured on the blog.
Swiss Historical Village Bee House Plans
The following plans are of the Swiss Historical Village’s bee house. They are the only plans here in English. They provide the architectural details needed for build a bienenhaus with American-style construction. If you find these plans useful, please consider a donation to the Swiss Historical Village, which was kind enough to share these plans with us.
Swiss Historical Village Bee House Plan
Bienenhaus für 12 oder 20 Völker
This document has two plans for bee houses: “Bee House for 12 People” and “Bee House for 20 People.” While the words are in German and the measurements are metric, it should give the potential builder an idea of the plans for building different sizes of bee houses.
Bienenhaus for 12 or 20 People
Description of Bienenhaus
This document is an excerpt from a book describing the construction considerations and use of the bienenhaus. It has many pictures of houses as well as architectural drawings. It is in German.
Early Bienenhaus and Beekeeping Instructions
This is an excerpt from a pre–World War II beekeeping manual. It written in the fraktur typeface and German, which makes it hard to read, but again, if you’d like help, please contact the institute. The document, Neuzeitliche Bienenhäuser or “Modern Beehouses,” describes the use and construction of bee houses.
Thank you again to the Swiss Historical Village and Ann Marie Ott for giving us access to their bee house and archives. Please consider a visit to and support for this museum.
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