History of Subsection Cb: Apiculture and Social Insects

Abstract

Keeping Bees in Man-Made Hives is an art that is probably 6000–8000 years old. Before the invention of man-made hives honey and wax were harvested from nests made by bees in trees and caves, and, in arid areas, from ground nests. Beekeeping probably began in Egypt, but we have only meager evidence for the existence of a system of colony management there; only three scenes depicting honey bees have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs (Crane 1983). One scene shows hives stacked in a way that is reminiscent of the mud hives found in Egypt today. The rush to introduce modern movable-frame beekeeping into Egypt today is such that few people are aware that mud hive beekeeping involved a system of swarm control, colony division, and special methods of harvesting the honey. It was a reasonably sophisticated system, and honey and beeswax were apparently abundant in that early empire. We know that both honey and beeswax played major roles in the economies of all of the civilizations that developed around the Mediterranean Sea. Sugar cane was not introduced into the area until about 1200 years ago. Beeswax was man's first plastic, and thus both honey and beeswax were in great demand and were important items in commerce in those early civilizations.