The History of Beekeeping

Humans have been stealing honey from bees for at least 9,000 years — and keeping bees intentionally for at least 4,500. The history of beekeeping is a story of ingenuity, observation, and a very slow realization that maybe we shouldn't have to destroy the hive every time we want honey.

Prehistoric Honey Hunters

Long before anyone thought to keep bees, humans hunted them. Wild honey was one of the only concentrated sources of sugar available to prehistoric people — and they were willing to climb cliffs and risk stings to get it.

The oldest evidence of honey hunting comes from cave paintings in Valencia, Spain, dating to around 7000 BCE. The "Man of Bicorp" painting shows a human figure climbing a rope or ladder to reach a wild bee nest, carrying a basket to collect honeycomb while bees swarm around.

Similar rock art appears in Africa, India, and Australia, suggesting that honey hunting was a universal human activity wherever honey bees existed. In some parts of the world — particularly Nepal and parts of Africa — traditional honey hunting continues today, with techniques that have changed little in millennia.

Ancient Civilizations & Early Beekeeping

Egypt: The First Beekeepers

The ancient Egyptians were likely the first to practice true beekeeping — keeping bees in managed hives rather than simply raiding wild nests. Temple reliefs from around 2400 BCE show workers blowing smoke into horizontal clay cylinder hives and removing honeycomb.

Egyptian beekeepers floated their hives on rafts up and down the Nile, following the bloom of flowers — an early form of migratory beekeeping. Honey was used in medicine, cooking, and as offerings to the gods. The bee itself was a symbol of Lower Egypt, and the pharaoh's title included "He of the Sedge and Bee."

Greece and Rome

The Greeks and Romans advanced beekeeping significantly. Aristotle wrote detailed observations of bee behavior around 350 BCE — remarkably accurate given he had no way to see inside a hive. He correctly described the roles of different bees and the hexagonal structure of honeycomb, though he believed the "king bee" (actually a queen) gave birth to all workers.

Roman agricultural writers like Columella and Varro wrote practical beekeeping manuals covering hive construction, swarm capture, seasonal management, and honey harvesting. Romans kept bees in terracotta, cork, and woven wicker hives.

The Problem with Ancient Hives

All ancient hive designs shared a fundamental limitation: the bees built their comb directly attached to the hive walls. To harvest honey, beekeepers had to cut out comb — often destroying the entire colony in the process, or at least setting it back severely.

This remained true for thousands of years. Beekeeping was essentially a form of bee farming where you raised colonies to destroy them.

Medieval Beekeeping

In medieval Europe, beekeeping was serious business. Honey was the primary sweetener (sugar wouldn't become widely available until the colonial era), and beeswax was essential for candles and church rituals. Monasteries became centers of beekeeping knowledge.

Skeps: The Iconic Hive

The image most people associate with traditional beekeeping — the dome-shaped straw hive — is called a skep. Skeps were common throughout Europe from medieval times through the 19th century.

They were cheap to make (woven from straw or wicker), provided good insulation, and bees seemed to thrive in them. The problem? No way to inspect the colony or remove individual combs. Harvesting meant killing the bees — usually by holding the skep over a pit of burning sulfur.

Log Hives and Bee Gums

In forested regions, beekeepers kept bees in hollow logs — called "bee gums" in the American South. These were often sections cut from black gum trees (hence the name), set upright with a board on top. Like skeps, they couldn't be inspected, but they were free and abundant.

The Langstroth Revolution

Everything changed in 1851, when a Philadelphia minister named Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth made the discovery that transformed beekeeping forever.

The "Bee Space" Discovery

Langstroth noticed something that beekeepers had observed but never systematically applied: bees leave a specific gap (about 3/8 inch, or 8-10mm) between their combs. If a space is smaller than this, bees fill it with propolis. If it's larger, they build comb in it.

But if you maintain exactly this "bee space" between removable frames, bees will build comb on the frames without attaching them to each other or to the hive walls. Langstroth designed a hive with frames hung in boxes, separated by precisely this distance.

For the first time, beekeepers could:

• Remove individual frames to inspect the colony without destroying it
• Harvest honey from specific frames while leaving others for the bees
• Check for disease and treat problems
• Move frames between hives
• Add or remove boxes as the colony grew or contracted

Langstroth patented his hive in 1852 and published The Hive and the Honey-Bee in 1853, a book still in print today. The Langstroth hive remains the most widely used hive design in the world.

Other Innovations of the Era

The mid-1800s saw a cascade of beekeeping innovations:

• 1857: Johannes Mehring invents embossed wax foundation, giving bees a head start on building straight comb
• 1865: Franz von Hruschka invents the centrifugal honey extractor, allowing honey to be removed from comb without destroying it
• 1873: Moses Quinby perfects the bee smoker with bellows

Together, these inventions made modern beekeeping possible — productive, sustainable, and humane.

Modern Beekeeping

Commercial & Migratory Beekeeping

The 20th century saw beekeeping scale up dramatically. In the United States, commercial beekeepers now truck millions of hives across the country, pollinating almonds in California, blueberries in Maine, and oranges in Florida.

Approximately 80% of the world's almonds come from California, and virtually every nut requires a bee visit. Each February, about 2 million colonies (roughly 80% of all U.S. managed hives) converge on California's Central Valley for almond pollination — the largest managed pollination event on Earth.

Challenges: Mites, Pesticides, and Loss

Modern beekeeping faces threats that Langstroth couldn't have imagined. The Varroa mite, accidentally introduced to the U.S. in 1987, has become the leading cause of colony death. Annual colony losses now average 30-40% in the U.S., with some years exceeding 45%.

Pesticides (particularly neonicotinoids), habitat loss, poor nutrition, and climate change compound the problem. Keeping bees alive is harder than it's ever been.

The Backyard Beekeeping Boom

Despite the challenges, hobby beekeeping has exploded in popularity since the early 2000s. Concern about bee decline, interest in local food, and the appeal of producing your own honey have drawn hundreds of thousands of new beekeepers worldwide.

Urban beekeeping has become common in cities from New York to London to Tokyo. Rooftop hives sit atop hotels, restaurants, and corporate headquarters.

The Future of Beekeeping

What comes next? A few trends are emerging:

• Technology: Smart hives with sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, weight, and sound. Remote monitoring apps. Data-driven management decisions.
• Genetics: Breeding programs focused on Varroa-resistant bees, including VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygiene) traits and survivor stock.
• Treatment-free beekeeping: A growing movement to let natural selection produce hardy, locally-adapted bees — though this approach involves high losses.
• Alternative pollinators: Interest in native bees, bumble bees, and other pollinators as supplements or alternatives to managed honey bees.