History of Beekeeping in Developing World

Abstract

History depict human beings as stewards of creation, utilizing nature for human prosperity, but in order to receive the product of honeybees, or their pollination services, human beings have to care for and assist the bees, rather than killing, hurting, or controlling them. It was their lust for adventure, for sweetness and for survival that drove the origins of beekeeping. There is little doubt that early encounters of hunter/gatherer cultures with beehives in the African forest, or on the savannah, or high in the mountain cliffs were very, very painful. The bees continue to do what they do naturally, but human beings provide the supporting environment. Before human’s directly husbanded bees, “honey hunting” was the favored method for acquiring wild honey. At some point humans began to attempt to domesticate wild bees in artificial hives made from hollow logs, wooden boxes, pottery vessels, and woven straw baskets or “skeps”. Honeybees were kept in Egypt from antiquity. The earliest evidence for hive beekeeping comes from the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Infect the moveable hives came to existence utilizing the knowledge and observations made by many beekeepers of ancient times. Both the ancient world and contemporary traditional apiculture elicit some evidence for nomadic beekeeping, what the Germans call Wanderbienenzucht. Ancient hives (and modern Near Eastern peasant hives) were most often shaped like pipes or logs (where bees naturally swarm) and were made from pottery, wicker, mud, clay, and wood. All of these hives would be portable on pack animals and boats. Peasant beekeepers in Egypt still today use much the same technology through typical pipe hives made of mud or clay are about a meter long and are stacked together, imitating logs. The ends are sealed except for small holes that allow the bees passage. This led to evolution of today’s migratory beekeeping. Unfortunately, modern beekeeping and farming practices have lost this ancient knowledge and this loss has taken its toll on the bees on multiple levels. The bees continue to do what they do naturally, but human being provides the supporting environment. It is therefore time for beekeepers to relearn of their traditions and history and to undo and retool that which is defective and wrong to overcome these problems.