Kingdom Animalia, Food Chain Consumers

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• 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

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History of Beekeeping

• Essex County Beekeepers Association Practical
  Beekeeping 2007
• Bill Bleem

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So, Who were the first to exploit bees for their
Honey and Wax?
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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?

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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.

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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.

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India, 500BC
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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.

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Egypt 660BC
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Egypt, 1450 BC
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Egypt, 2400 BC
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• 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!

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South Africa
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Spain, 4500BC
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Spain, 6000BC
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Spain 6000BC
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Neanderthal,130,000
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Australopithicus, 4M BC
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Primitive Primates?
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• 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

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• 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!

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Distribution Map
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Apis Mellifera Nest
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A. Florea Nest
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A. Dorsada Nests
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India 500BC
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• Only 1 animal has more written about it than
  Bees
• Man

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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

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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

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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.

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Francis Huber

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

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Johann Dzierzon

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

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Royal Jelly in a Queen Cell
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• Now we understood the basic lifecycle of the
  Honeybee.
• BUT
• We still did not have a hive we could manage!

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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!

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• 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.

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Movable Top Bar Hive
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Top Bar Comb
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Compartments!
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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

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Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth(1810
1895)Father of American Beekeeping Andover,
MA 1836 - 1847
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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.
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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!

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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

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1900s

• Breeding Honeybees
• Brother Adam
• Africanized Bees in the Americas 1950s
• Brazil breeding station
• OOPS!
• More Hybrids
• More Scientific Studies
• More interest in Beekeeping

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Essex County BeekeepersEst. 1923
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Brother Adam 1898 - 1996
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1925 Brother Adam Breeding Honeybees for
certain traitsthe Buckfast Bee

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

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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.

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2007 You!

• Welcome to Beekeeping!