History Of Beekeeping

How Beekeeping Started

The relationship between honey bees and humans goes back thousands of years. Before modern beekeeping, people were “honey hunters” and harvested honey by taking comb from wild beehives. Honey was often the only source of sugar and was considered very valuable. Cave paintings from 7000 BCE depict honey hunters collecting honey this way. Later, people began keeping bees in hollow logs, clay pots, and straw baskets across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Advances in honey bee biology and beekeeping occurred throughout the 1500s to the 1800s, but it wasn’t until 1852 that the modern, removable frame hive was created. Soon after, Lorenzo L. Langstroth patented his version in the US. This innovation allowed beekeepers to work more easily with their bees and eliminated the need to damage the hive to harvest honey or inspect the colony. Langsthroth’s work in beekeeping gave him the title of the “father of modern beekeeping”.