Transcript History of Beekeeping talk

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)
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
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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
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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 man’s 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
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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 Méndez 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 Man’s 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 1860’s
• 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
1900’s
• Breeding Honeybees:
– Brother Adam
– Africanized Bees in the Americas 1950’s
• 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
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Good Temper
Disease-Resistance
Prolific
Propensity for hard
work
• Disinclination to
swarm
2000’s
• 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
Beekeeper’s Apprentice’, etc.
2007 – You!
Welcome to Beekeeping!