Fujiwara Bee Farm/Window for Bees

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

20 Aug 2021

A bee farm founded in 1901 in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture. Originally, beehives were left exposed to the weather outside, but in severely cold areas, hives are placed in huts during the winter. Within the hut, the hives are placed on rice husk coverings to store heat and maintain a constant temperature. In mid-winter, the beehives are completely buried in rice husks. Nets are attached to the windows of the hut, allowing the condensed water vapor caused by the warmed rice husks and the cold external air to escape. There is a hole in the bottom frame of the window to allow bees into the hive.

Fujiwara Bee Farm
(Honey / Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture)

This article is an excerpt from “Window Workology,” a joint research project concerning windows and the behaviors around them done in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.