subject: Brief History Of Beekeeping [print this page] No one with any certainty knows the precise moment when somebody seriously considered obtaining honey from hives for the first time although everyone knows the fact that beekeeping has existed for a long period of time. Cave iIllustrations have been uncovered by archaeologists in Africa and Span's eastern regions, dating back to the 7000BC, showing people collecting honey. A large number of pictures reveal individuals scooping honey from rocks and trees, and a number of them show drawings of individuals standing, un-stung, in the center of swarms of bees. Researchers suspect that some of these early cave inhabitants observed that smoke had a helpful influence on bees.
The first man-made bee hives had been crafted from pottery, clay vases and containers, as well as straw baskets similar to the trees and rock crevices that the bees were being attracted to in nature. The early beekeepers found out ways to trap the swarms of bees inside these types of containers. The captured bees would then proceed to transform the particular containers into a new bee hive.
Proof exists that a large number of early civilizations, for example the Myans, reared bees and gathered their honey.
Followers of Roman history are aware that bees along with their honey played a part within the Roman way of life. The Romans even had a Goddess called Mellona, who was the guardian of the bees.
Likewise the honey bees commanded a great deal of respect from the Greeks. On Mt. Olympus, home of Zeus, these people sipped the nectar supplied from the gods (researchers think that the actual nectar referred to by the Greeks was in fact honey). Greek mythology states that it was bees that were responsible for constructing Apollo's second temple. When Aristotle wrote his book, "The History of Animals", he wrote how bees were capable of locating flowers.
A transformative time regarding beekeeping appeared to be during the period between the 1500's and 1851. Because of the information that had been discovered concerning the life cycle of the honey bee in the late 1500's a significant change in beekeeping took place. Once the way in which bees were living was understood, beekeepers were better able to take care of them.
Modifications to man-made hives began to take place. As beekeepers, agricultural enthusiasts, and researchers, yearned to find out more about the life cycle of bees, beekeepers started to consider different ways to develop some sort of hive which would permit them to conveniently view within the hive.
The first mobile bee hive was designed by an American, Lorenzo Langstroth in 1852.
The European honey bee was released to California in the 1850's and later they were introduced to Oregon and Canada.
It is thought that we now have in excess of 210,000 beekeepers at present in the United States alone with many thousands more world wide. Beekeepers in the United States currently keep and take care of in excess of 3 million flourishing bee hives, and bee keeping has progressed from a pleasing hobby to a multi million dollar business.
