Apis Mellifera

Kingdom Animalia,

Food

Chain Consumers

Phylum Arthropoda,
exoskeleton, segmented, jointed
appendages

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera,
membranous wings, 2 sets, hooked

Family Apiidae,

Bees

(20,000), Wasps, Ants

Genus Apis,
Honeybees, (7)
Species Mellifera

Bee.mov

History of Beekeeping

Essex County Beekeepers Association

Practical Beekeeping 2007
Bill Bleem

So, Who were the first to exploit

bees for their Honey and Wax?

Romans

Pliny wrote about beekeeping in about 50AD

Wrote about wax, and propolis

Described a transparent (Observation) hive
The Mead consumed by the Celts!
Bees are the smallest of birds, and are born from the bodies of oxen

Virgil wrote about beekeeping in about 40BC

Keep hives:
Near water
Out of the wind
Away for lizards, moths, and birds
Emphasized the hives ruler
Praised Bees for their abstension from Sexual intercourse
Spontaneous Generation?

The Bible
In Exodus, Cannan is referred to as The land of
milk and honey.
King Solomon: "My son eat thou honey, because
it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to
thy taste".
Samson : ..and he turned aside to see the
carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a
swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the
lion.

Greeks
384 BC, Aristotle
wrote much about
beekeeping.
Foulbrood
First to note that
honeybee's don't visit
flowers of different
kinds on one flight,
but remain constant
to one species.

India, 500BC

Egypt
When Ra weeps
again, the water
which flows from his
eyes upon the ground
turns into working
bees. They work the
flowers and trees of
every kind and honey
and wax comes into
being.

Egypt
660BC

Egypt, 1450 BC

Egypt, 2400 BC

3000 BC we have written records on

migratory beekeeping up and down the
Nile river in ancient Egypt.
Tablet from a Beekeeper pleading for
someone to send donkeys to transport his
hives before the floods took them!

South Africa

Spain,
4500BC

Spain,
6000BC

Spain
6000BC

Neanderthal,130,000

Australopithicus, 4M BC

Primitive Primates?

 For 150 100 Million Years

Flowering plants have existed and produced
nectar and pollen

For 50 25 Million Years

Solitary bees had existed, also early primates

For 20 to 10 Million Years

Social bees have produced and stored honey

For a few Million Years

Man has existed and has eaten honey

For a few Thousand Years

Records exist of mans exploitation of honey

Species
Dorsada Asian, Large, Single Comb,
Outside Dwelling
Floria Asian, Small, Single Comb,
Outside Dwelling
Cerina Asian, Small, Parallel Comb,
Cavity Dwelling
Mellifera Africa/Europe/Mid-East,
Parallel Comb, Cavity Dwelling
Many Races!

Distribution Map

Apis Mellifera Nest

A. Florea Nest

A. Dorsada Nests

India 500BC

Only 1 animal has

more written about it
than Bees:

Man

Beekeeping Evolution

Opportunistic Honey Hunting

Tending of Wild Hives
Relocating Wild Hives
Purpose Built Hives
Hollow Logs
Pottery Vessels
Skeps
Wooden Hives

Modern Managed Hives

0 to 1400 AD
Rome declining (300AD)
Fall of Rome (450AD)
Travel Unsafe
Knowledge not easily disseminated

Dark Ages
No written history
No major achievements

Black Plague 1350 (75 Million Dead!)

Beginning of the Renaissance (1400ish)
Printing Press 1450

1500 -1600 AD
In 1586, Luis Mndez de Torres first
described the queen bee as a female that
laid eggs.
1609 Charles Butler identified the
monarch as a female queen and the drone
as a male bee.
In 1637, Richard Remnant recognized that
the worker bees were females.

Francis Huber
Fully movable frame, Leaf, hive 1789
Observations on Bees
Queen mating practices and role of Drones

Johann Dzierzon
Discovery of
parthenogenesis in
Queen bees 1835.
Discovery of Royal
Jelly and its role in
Queen
development 1854.

Royal Jelly in a Queen Cell

 Now we understood the basic lifecycle of

the Honeybee.
BUT
We still did not have a hive we could
manage!

The Problem with Hives

Excess Wax and Propolis make the hive
very difficult to work.
Bees fill in everything and attach comb to
walls.
To harvest the honey beekeepers would
kill the bees and cut out the honeycomb.
Not at all efficient!

 Wild Bees build their honey combs about

1 and 3/8 inches apart. Honey comb is
about one inch wide, so this left a 3/8 inch
passageway between the combs.
Some beekeepers built hives that forced
the bees to build combs along "top bars"
that were spaced about 1 and 3/8 inches
apart.

Movable Top Bar Hive

Top Bar Comb

Compartments!

Honeybees around America

First Honeybees to America in 1622
First documented apiary, Newbury 1640
Spread with Settlers and via Swarms
Per Thomas Jefferson, 1784, to Native
Americans: White Mans Flies

Rev. Lorenzo
Lorraine
Langstroth
(1810 1895)
Father of American Beekeeping

Andover, MA
1836 - 1847

Eureka! 1851
Lorenzo Langstroth
clarifies bee space, the
3/8 inch needed between
frames for bees to build
comb.
The Langstroth
Movable Frame Hive is
the first and most
important invention in
creating a commercial
beekeeping industry.

Honeybees around America

Langstroth Movable Frame Hive - 1851
Honeybees to California 1860s
2 Million lbs of honey in CA in 1884

What was a scarce product became

an abundant commodity by 1880!

Inventions Fast and Furious

Inventions fed off each other
Pre-formed wax foundation: 1857
Extractor: 1865 Francesco De
Hruschka
Smokers: 1873 Moses Quimby
Queen Excluder Improved

1900s
Breeding Honeybees:
Brother Adam
Africanized Bees in the Americas 1950s
Brazil breeding station
OOPS!

More Hybrids
More Scientific Studies
More interest in Beekeeping

Essex County Beekeepers

Est. 1923

Brother Adam 1898 - 1996

1925 Brother Adam

Breeding Honeybees for certain traits:
the Buckfast Bee

Good Temper
Disease-Resistance
Prolific
Propensity for hard
work
Disinclination to
swarm

2000s
Increased public awareness of the critical
role that Honeybees play in the ecosystem
and their role in pollination of food crops!
Increased literary interest in Bees and
Beekeeping as evidenced by the success
of The Secret Life of Bees, The
Beekeepers Apprentice, etc.

2007 You!
Welcome to Beekeeping!