Beekeeping or apiculture goes back to ancient civilizations as sugar was scarce in those days, the people used honey instead. This is one of the first activities of man to produce honey.
Evidence for the bee honey on the Nile River survives from Thebes 1380-1130 BC. It is reported that the Egyptians kept hives of bees on their boats in the Nile and that as different flowering plants bloomed along the river banks the Egyptians moved their boats to them.
Egypt’s fascinating with bee from the earliest of epoch is reinforced by the fact that King Menes, founder of the first Egyptian Dynasty was bestowed with office of ‘Beekeeper’; a title ascribed to all subsequent Pharaohs, and the King’s administration has a special position created called the ‘Sealer of the Honey’.
The practice continued through the Ptolemaic and Roman periods and beyond.
In Mesopotamia, beekeeping has become a practice by the 8th BC. During the Achaemenian Empire (559-330 BC), apiculture for honey production, instead of sugar, was already a common practice among the Persians.
Swammerdam (1637-1680)and Ferchault de Reaumur (1683-1757), were among the first to use the microscope and dissection to understand the internal biology of the honey bee.
Reaumur was among the first to construct a glass walled observation hive to better observe activities within the hive. In the United States, a beehive based on this ancient principle was developed by Lorenza Lorraine Langstroth in 1851.
History of Apiculture
