The museum, which opened in the mid-1980s, contains materials on the history of beekeeping, photographs of beekeeper scientists, and has a section for apitherapy, new achievements and technologies in this industry. The museum exposition tells about all stages of honey production, starting with the peculiarities of the life of a bee family, various technologies for collecting honey, and ending with beliefs and legends associated with honey. A separate stand is dedicated to the development of scientific beekeeping.
In the museum, visitors can learn that there are three types of beekeeping: side, body and apiary (hive); can see how the body is suspended from a tree in the forest. The museum also has a sample of one of the first hives, the basis for which was once an ordinary stump with a hollow, placed in a beehouse. In the museum’s windows, the inventory of beekeepers of the 19th century is displayed, there are drawings and engravings dedicated to the topic of honey, there are even first editions that reflect the development of “honey science”, both in Ukraine and in the world. The pride of the museum is its specially designed inspection hives, through which you can see how bees live, how they build honeycombs, unload brought nectar and pollen, and raise new bees. The museum also talks about the beneficial properties of various beekeeping products (honey, wax, beebread, propolis, bee venom).
The exhibition also tells about the saints who, according to legend, promote honey collection, about traditional folk “honey” holidays, about how honey drinks and sweets, which were very popular, were prepared in the old days. At the beekeeping museum you can taste different types of honey. Tourists are also told about the building in which the apartment house of the founder of modern frame beekeeping, Pyotr Prokopovich, is located. There is a separate stand dedicated to beekeepers of Ukraine.
The Beekeeping Museum also has modern technologies at its disposal. Three dioramas are presented to visitors, as well as soundtracks that allow them to trace the history of the development of beekeeping and its current state, including such forms as apitherapy and bee veterinary medicine. There is an apitherapy room on site, where you can use honey massage services, and various types of honey are sold. Museum guests are entertained by folk groups. The museum maintains close ties with the magazines “Ukrainian Beekeeper”, “Beekeeping” and “Apiary”. Every year on August 19, the Beekeeping Museum celebrates Beekeeper’s Day.
Where is the National Beekeeping Museum of Ukraine?
Academician Zabolotnogo Street, 19
(044) 526–67–98
Mon-Fri: 09:00-17:00