The National Apiculture Institute

The National Apiculture Institute in Bologna offers an interesting exhibition on the traditions related to the ‘nectar of the Gods’, showcasing beehives and tools used in the past in the breeding of these precious insects. It is no accident that the museum is located in the very region where modern apiculture was developed. The exhibition bears witness to the imagination and ingenuity of
the region’s ancestors through the exhibition of beehives of all kinds, including those made out of cork bark (following the American tradition), and others in ferula bark. The highlight of the collection is a magnificent honey extractor - one of the first of its kind - dating back to the second half of the 1800s and still operational today.
The exhibition also includes splendid wood models of apiaries developed following regional Italian traditions, cages, smokers for calming the insects, and tools used to insert queen cells.