BEEKEEPING HISTORY
While it is almost certain that early hominids (including Australopithecus) engaged in the activity of honey hunting as far back as 5 million years ago, our oldest preserved records of this activity come from rock paintings in Europe and Asia dated to the Mesolithic period, about 5 or 6 thousand years ago. Opportunistic hunting was probably replaced by the tending of established bee nests when the concept of land ownership developed during the Neolithic. These established immovable nests included natural and constructed cavities in trees, rock outcrops or other artificial structures produced using materials at hand. This form of nest tending and honey harvesting has been practiced by cultures in virtually every corner of the world and is still in use in many cultures today.

The use of hives - transportable containers constructed by man to house nests—probably began in Egypt around 5,000 years ago and spread quickly throughout the Old World. In Asia this advancement likely took hold in the first or second century AD. In early hive designs, honeycomb was attached directly to the walls of these containers. The disadvantage of this configuration was that extracting honey from the hive invariable damaged the nest. However, continual improvements in hive technology eventually resulted in the replacement of this fixed comb design with movable comb hives. With movable comb hives a separate honey chamber could be removed from the hive with minimal damage to the nest.

Remarkably, the modern beehives we see stacked near orchards along the interstate today were not developed until 1851. The Reverend L.L. Langstroth, an American, is generally credited with this design, though much of it was based on innovations developed by earlier beekeepers.

For information on modern beekeeping practices, we suggest you visit The National Honey Board at www.nhb.org.