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1. The History of
BeeKeeping
2. Anatomy of a Bee
3. The Brood Rearing Process
4. Queen, Worker & Drones Behavior
5. Races of Bees
6. Nectar and Pollen Plants of Pacific Northwest
7. Beekeeping Equipment & Hive Assembly
8. Selecting the apiary site
9. Packaged Bees and how to care for them
10. How to Manage Bees
11. Swarming, causes and control
12. How to hive a swarm
13. Removing and Extracting the Honey Crop
14. Wintering the Hive
15. Colony treatment for bee disease & mite control
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LESSON 1:
History of Beekeeping
Primitive beekeeping was a crude art. Hives consisted of pottery, baskets and holes in rocky cliffs. Beekeepers knew very little about the bees and many times bees were killed after the season was over to harvest the honey. Early man did however understand the importance of honey as a food source. It was recognized that milk and honey were essential for baby formulas even in Biblical days.
There is much historical data that indicates that beekeeping is an ancient art. Below is a list of some important dates in recorded history of beekeeping. For more information on the history of beekeeping, check out the book "The Hive and the Honey Bee" from Dadant Publishing.
- The oldest record is approximately 15000 BC.
- 3000 BC we have written records on migratory beekeeping up and down the Nile river in ancient Egypt.
- Exodus 3:8 indicates that Cannan as the land of milk and honey.
- Around 900 BC King Solomon speaks of honey and honeycomb in many passages. Proverbs 24:13 "My son eat thou honey, because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to thy taste".
- 384 BC, Aristotle the greek teacher, did much research on beekeeping. His writing indicates foulbrood, enemies of bees, and apparently the first to notice that honeybee's don't visit flowers of different kinds on one flight, but remain constant to one species.
- 70-19 BC Virgil Roman a poet and beekeeper, recommended clipping the wings of queen bees and speaks of shad and wind protecting.
- 800-900 AD Bees were probably brought to America by the Irish and Norwegians.
- 1500-1850 Many discoveries about bees and beekeeping but unsuccessful in producing movable frames. Bee's were not native to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.
- West coast bee's were not introduced till 1850's when they landed in California and by wagon to Oregon.
- 1851 bee's had colonized all over the world. Lorenzo Langstroth (The father of modern beekeeping) developed the moveable frame. Lorenzo was from the US and his work spread from here to England, Europe and finally world wide. His creation of the Langstroth hive is still the standard to this day.
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