History of Beekeeping

Keeping Bees in Ancient and Modern Times

Oct 22, 2009

Originating in Asia, honeybees were first brought to America by Virginia colonists in 1621.

When the town of Newberry, Massachusetts established an apiary, one native Indian observed that not only did the white man work and make his horse and ox work but he also made flies work.

Black German bees were the most popular until 1860 when the first shipment of Italian bees came to America. These high honey producers were of such a gentle disposition that they soon supplanted the Black German bees in popularity.

Ancient Beekeeping

Beekeeping was portrayed on the walls of Egyptian temples predating 2422 BC. Archaeologists discovered beehives made of straw and unbaked clay in the ruined city of Rehov. Found next to an altar decorated with fertility figurines it is supposed that religious practices were associated with beekeeping.

Beekeeping was described on a stele found in the ruins of Babylon's museum. It reads, "I introduced the flies which collect honey... I even understood how to separate the honey from the wax by boiling: my gardeners also know this." (1)

Medieval Beekeeping

In medieval times bees were kept in a straw skep. A skep was made by braiding straw into ropes, twisting the ropes into a spiral and securing each one to the next into a conical shape. The skep was placed in a wall cavity for protection against wind and rain. In the fall an empty skep was placed on top of the full skep with a hole connecting the two. The bees would climb up into the empty skep and the full one could then be removed and harvested.

Although honey yields were considerably lower than in modern hives, the method was simple and inexpensive. Almost every farm had several hives in the days when swarms were plentiful and easy to find.

A Revolution in Beekeeping

It is the natural tendency of honeybees to fill any empty spaces with combs and to cement smaller spaces together with a resinous substance called propolin.

In 1850 the Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, an avid observer of insects from a young age, made a remarkable discovery. He found that if a space of 1 cm (3/8") was left in the hive for bees to move around in, the bees would neither build comb in the space or cement it shut. He called it the "bee space".

The "bee space" was the exact space between two vertical planes on which honeybees build their honey comb without filling the space between, leaving room to crawl through.

Langstroth's method was to hang vertical sheets of wax down at the correct space apart. The bees, instead of building their comb randomly, would build it on these sheets of wax. Also the coverboard, usually well cemented to the frame with propolin, was now easily removed.

Modern Beekeeping

The modern hive has a base to raise it up off of the ground with an entrance for bees to get into the hive. On top of the base is a brood chamber where the queen lays her eggs in brood frames made of sheets of wax embossed with honey comb impressions. This is where the bees will build the wax honey comb. Above the brood chamber is a wooden box like the brood box only shallower. Known as a honey super this box is where the honey is stored. A queen excluder divides the two chambers. The excluder admits worker bees into the honey super but not the larger queen, preventing her from laying eggs where honey is stored and later harvested. The hive may consist of two or three supers stacked on top of one another. The roof cover has a bee-escape for the bees to get out but not in.

In the fall the queen excluder is taken out allowing the queen to move with the winter cluster of honeybees that forms inside the hive when temperatures drop to 12-14C (54-57F). The bees cling together in the combs and move throughout the winter to reach the stored honey.

Although beekeepers are meant to take only the surplus honey not required to carry the bees through winter, it is difficult to determine how much honey the bees will need. Modern practice involves a fall harvest and feeding the bees with corn syrup and refined sugars over the winter. There is some speculation that this practice may be a factor in the current bee crisis.

A movement to return to former beekeeping practices encourages beekeepers to leave all the honey in the hive until spring when blossoming begins and a new flow of nectar commences. Beekeepers could then be certain that what they harvested was actually surplus honey.

The copyright of the article History of Beekeeping in Flying Insects is owned by Linnea Heinrichs. Permission to republish History of Beekeeping in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.