The History of Beekeeping

Apiculture or beekeeping, has been around for millennia. What started out as harvesting honey from wild hives over 10,000 years ago, morphed into housing bees in pottery jars by 9,000 years ago. Proper domestication of bees didn’t come until Ancient Egypt. Honey was even found in King Tut’s tomb!

In prehistoric Greece, beekeeping was a highly-valued industry, making many beekeeping overseers very wealthy. 18^th century Europe saw a major development in the world of beekeeping, when removable combs were developed that allowed honey to be collected without destroying the whole hive. This came about due to the study of honeybees by many of naturalists of the area.

The 19^th century saw an explosion of innovations in beekeeping. This included new hive designs, books about beekeeping, and the bee-smoker. By the 20^th century, beekeeping clubs were being formed as interest in apiculture grew, both as a business and a hobby.

Today, the top countries of honey production are: China, Argentina, Ukraine, USA, and Turkey. In Canada, Alberta is the province that produces the most honey, and the entire country produces over 92 million pounds of honey every year!