Slovenian Bee House Day includes entries from Dublin and Hancock

Saturday was Slovenian Bee House Day in the Monadnock region, with four Slovenian bee house owners opening their colorful “bee houses” to the public.

“Slovenian bee houses have a lot of advantages,” said Katy Wardlaw of Dublin. “You just suit up and walk in, no matter what the weather.”

Slovenian bee houses resemble small houses or huts, and are distinguished by the multicolored rectangles marking the individual hives. Unlike typical Langstroth beehives, which look like white filing cabinets and sit separately on the ground, Slovenian bee houses have built-in, separate drawers which can be accessed by the beekeeper from inside the building. Bees approach and enter the hives from the outside, and beekeepers perform maintenance and harvest honey from the interior.

The region’s annual Slovenian Bee House Day is organized by Suzanne Brouilette of Harrisville, who believes she has “the only shop in the U.S. that sells Slovenian beehives and accessories.” The tour included four participating bee houses in Dublin, Hancock and Harrisville.

Brouilette became interested in Slovenian beehives while serving as director of the information, tour and travel office of the Army installation in Caserma Ederle, Italy. After organizing many tours to the country, Brouilette “fell in love with Slovenia.” During her visits to the small, mountainous nation, Brouilette noticed the colorful bee houses scattered through the countryside, as well as bee trucks, which are mobile units carrying multicolored drawers of hives. Brouilette became curious about Slovenian beekeeping, as she had never seen anything similar anywhere else in Europe.

Brouilette made it her mission to bring Slovenian beekeeping to the United States. and noted that New Hampshire currently has about 200 Slovenian bee houses. Participating in Saturday’s tour were Brouilette, Katy Wardlaw of Dublin, Carol and Mike McDomingue of Hancock and Debby Abbot of Harrisville.

“The great thing is you can check the frames individually and monitor how they are doing,” Wardlaw said. “With Langstroth beehives, you have to lift a whole block of several drawers at once, which is really difficult because they’re really heavy. With a Slovenian bee house, you can just slide hives out one by one and you can replace frames easily and move them around.”

Wardlaw demonstrated removing a single frame to check the state of the comb.

“If a hive isn’t doing well, I can look and see if there it still a queen, and if there isn’t one, I can add one in. You can move the frames around from hive to hive,” Wardlaw said.

Carol McDomingue said the “bees know their color.”

“The theory is they can differentiate color, and they know which one to go to,” McDomingue said.

The McDomingues, both Air Force veterans, harvest up to 50 pounds of honey at a time from their Slovenian bee house. Most Slovenian bee houses include an observation window, where the beekeeper, or aviarist, can observe the comings and goings of their bees. Slovenian bee houses are also typically surrounded by flowers to attract bees and other pollinators.

“We love watching them and keeping an eye on them,” Carol McDomingue said. “We tell people, don’t get in their flyway where they are coming and going form the hive, because they are very focused. They will bounce right off your forehead.”

Wardlaw, who said her favorite spot to sit is at the observation window looking over her hives, recently witnessed a “robbing event” at her bee house.

“I saw a swarm and thought, ‘What’s going on?’” Wardlaw said. “Then I realized some raider bees were going into my beehives. I stuffed the hives with grass to keep the raiders out, and I’m going to keep an eye on it and see how it goes.”

Saturday’s event saw about 20 curious visitors people stopping by each bee house. For information about Brouilette’s Slovenian bee houses, go to slovenianbeekeeping.com.