Archive
«Narodoznavchi Zoshyty» 2008 year, issue 1-2 read »
The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. # 2 (182). P. 249- DOI... read »
2009 year, issue 3-4 read »
The Ethnology Notebooks. 2024. # 2 (176). P. 259-476 DOI... read »

« 2026. # 1 (187)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 1 (187), 178—192

UDK 39(=161.2):[72.031.4:638.1](477.81/.82)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

The date the article was first submitted to the publication 16.02.2026

The date the article was accepted for publication after review 9.02.2026

The date of publication (publication)

LOG BEEHIVES AS AN ELEMENT OF THE FARMSTEAD IN WESTERN POLISSIA (BASED ON MATERIALS FROM THE LIUBOML AND RATNE AREAS)

LONCHUK Serhii

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2489-3947
  • PhD student,
  • The Ethnology Institute
  • of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,department of Historical Ethnology,15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: serhiy.lonchuk@gmail.com

Abstract. Introduction. Log beekeeping is a distinctive ethnocultural phenomenon that evolved from forest beekeeping (bortnytstvo) and has survived to the present day. The origin of log beehives is associated with bort trees felled by storms: a bort cut from the trunk of a fallen pine tree was transformed into a log beehive. Later, log beehives began to be specially manufactured.

During field research on vernacular architecture in Western Polissia, conducted in the Ratne and Liuboml areas, measurements were taken of 80 log beehives as one of the elements of the farmstead. Today, log beekeeping has a relict character: fewer beekeepers in the region use log beehives, which leads to the loss of this object of material culture. Therefore, their documentation, measurement, and comparative analysis determine the relevance of this research.

The purpose of the article is to characterize log beehives of the Ratne and Liuboml areas as an element of the traditional farmstead of Western Polissia, based on field materials collected in November-December 2025, and to trace their origin, construction features, methods of placement, and the current state of preservation.

The object of the research is forest beekeeping (bortnytstvo) and log beekeeping in Western Polissia, while the subject of the study comprises borti and log beehives. The main research methods employed include comparative and typological approaches, methods of integrated analysis, and field research. The territory of the research includes parts of Western Polissia, specifically certain villages in the Ratne and Liuboml areas.

Conclusion. The ways in which log beehives were arranged  — in orchards, along vegetable gardens, on trees within farmsteads, and occasionally in cemeteries or at forest edges  — directly influenced the organization and planning structure of the peasant household. Such phenomena can be observed both in the Ratne and Liuboml areas and in adjacent regions of Western Polissia.

As a result of field research conducted in the Ratne area, a significant number of log beehives were documented as a relict element of the traditional farmstead of Western Polissia. The analysis of their construction and measurements made it possible to identify a stable local proportional model of the log beehive characteristic of the area.

Keywords: ethnology, material culture, cultural heritage, vernacular architecture, farmstead, borti, log beehives, forest beekeeping, beekeeping, Polissia.

REFERENCES

  • Blank-Weissberg, S. (1937). Bee trees and log hives in Poland. Warsaw: Polish Zootechnical Society [in Polish].
  • Skurativskyi, V. (1978). The development of beekeeping in Ukraine (main forms of hive evolution). Folk Art and Ethnography, 5, 46—57. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
  • Dmytrenko, A. (2016). Forest beekeeping of Right-Bank Polissia, Ukraine. Materials for Ukrainian Ethnology, 15 (18), 69—82. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
  • Movna, U. (2024). Production experience of beekeepers of Hutsulshchyna: historical types, construction features and ways of the hive evolution. The Carpathians: populace, ethnos, civilization, (10), 177—194. Ivano-Frankivsk [in Ukrainian].
  • Dmytrenko, A., Kovalchuk, Ye.I., & Miroshnychenko-Husak, L.A. (Eds.). (2017). The last forest beekeepers of Volyn Polissia (based on expedition materials from Kamin-Kashyrskyi and Ratne districts). In: Ye.I. Kovalchuk, L.A. Miroshnychenko-Husak. The past and present of Volyn and Polissia. Ethnographic museology in Ukraine and Volyn (Issue 61, pp. 12—19). Lutsk [in Ukrainian].
  • Dmytrenko, A., & Hrymych, M. (Ed.). (2013). Traditional male occupations: Beekeeping. In: M. Hrymych. Folk culture of Ukrainians: The human life cycle. Maturity. Men. Male subculture (Vol. 4, pp. 135—159). Kyiv: Duliby [in Ukrainian].
  • Hurkov, V.S., Skuratovsky, V.T., & Terekhin, S.F. (1988). Beekeeping. In: Polissia. Material culture (Pp. 164—173). Kyiv: Naukova dumka [in Russian].
  • Jagiello, W., & Gajek, J. (Ed.). (1947). Ethnographic notes from the outskirts of Liuboml. In: J. Gajek. Ethnographic Works and Materials (Vol. 6, pp. 127—152). Lublin [in Polish].
  • Movna, U. (2000). From the history of the development of beekeeping in the Carpathians and the Pre-Carpathian region (forms of beekeeping economy from the earliest times to the 17th—18th centuries). The Ethnology Notebooks, (5), pp. 851–859. Lviv [in Ukrainian].
  • (2004). Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of 1588 (Vol. 3, book 2). Odesa: Legal Literature [in Ukrainian].
  • Hurkov, V.S., & Terekhin, S.F. (1987). An occupation noble since ancient times. Minsk: Polymya [in Russian].
  • Lokotko, A.I. (1991). Belarusian vernacular architecture: Mid-19th—20th centuries. Minsk: Navuka i Tekhnika [in Russian].
  • Archive of the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Folkways of Ukraine. F. 4. Op. 2. Ref. 2. Lohvyn N.H. Report on a field trip to Rivne and Volyn regions, 1979 [in Russian].
  • Lazaruk, V.A. (2018). Svitiaz: A documentary essay on a Polissian talisman (Vol. 3, book 4). Zhytomyr: O.O. Yevenok [in Ukrainian].
  • Vovk, F. (2015). Studies in Ukrainian ethnography and anthropology. Kharkiv: Oleksandr Savchuk Publisher [in Ukrainian].
  • (1928). The Scientific Collections of the Department of Polish Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology. Rural Inventory Albums. Album, 237. Drawings, 237_01—237_39. Natalia Borowska. Inventory of the village of Werbka, Gmina Kolodnica, Kovel County, Wolyn Voivodeship [in Polish].
Our authors
Oksana Sapeliak. Senior Research Fellow, Ph.D. in... read »
Olena Nykorak. Senior Researcher, Doctor of Arts read »
Roman Radovych. Researcher, Ph.D. in History. read »
Yaroslav Taras. Head of Department, Professor, Doctor... read »
Daily bread baking of ukrainians in the south-western ethnographical region at the late XIX to early XXI cc.
The paper has dealt with analytic study in prescriptions, signs, customs, methods, ways of selection, procurement and some peculiarities in usage of subsidiary means — water, firewood and leaves in bread baking. The final aim of the mentioned actions had been (and still is) selection of the means and ingredients fit, by their characteristics, for the backing of bread. The paper has demonstrated dependence of bread backing subsi­diary means criteria from the folk nutritional standards and world outlook stereotypes as well as from regional social and economic, natural and geographical factors and peculiarities of material culture.
Read »

On bessarabian and moldavian ukrainians in the studies of historical ethnography
The article has thrown some light upon a sum of scientific findings got during XIX to XXI cc. in historio-ethnographic studies of Bessarabia and Moldavian Ukrainians. In the pre­sent paper has been given author’s answer to the problem of lacking progress as for the numerous themes concerning Ukrainians. State and achievements of the research-works in Ukrainians’ material and spiritual culture by the scientists of Moldavia and Ukraine through the years of independence has been exposed.
Read »

Boikos’ pandemonium: categories of evil deceased
In the article have been presented some research-work on peculiarities of Boikos’ traditional demonological notions as for so-called evil deceased; on the basis of field records and ethnological literary sources quite a number of scum categories have been defined as well as essential habits, modes of behavior and functions of these personages of people’s demonology.
Read »

Traditional folk clothes of velikobychkovsky hutsuly of XIX — the first half of XX century
In the study based upon numerous field materials, literature sources as well as ethnographic, historio-cultural and regional museum collections has been performed complex analysis in traditional folk clothes by Hutzul population of Velyky Bychkiv village in Transcarpathian region. Detailed descriptions of femi­nine and masculine clothing complexes of the mentioned area have been presented. In characterizing of those main attention has been paid to the detail of cut in separate components of dress; cut of feminine shirt has been added as an illustration.
Read »