3. Romans
• Pliny wrote about beekeeping in about 50AD
• Wrote about wax, and propolis
• Described a transparent (Observation) hive
• The Mead consumed by the Celts!
• “Bees are the smallest of birds, and are born from the bodies of oxen”
• Virgil wrote about beekeeping in about 40BC
• Keep hives:
– Near water
– Out of the wind
– Away for lizards, moths, and birds
• Emphasized the hives ruler
• Praised Bees for their abstension from Sexual intercourse
• Spontaneous Generation?
4. The Bible
• In Exodus, Cannan is referred to as “The land of
milk and honey.”
• King Solomon: "My son eat thou honey, because
it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to
thy taste".
• Samson : “..and he turned aside to see the
carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a
swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the
lion.”
5. Greeks
• 384 BC, Aristotle
wrote much about
beekeeping.
• Foulbrood
• First to note that
honeybee's don't visit
flowers of different
kinds on one flight,
but remain constant
to one species.
7. 3000 BC we have written records on
migratory beekeeping up and down the
Nile river in ancient Egypt.
Tablet from a Beekeeper pleading for
someone to send donkeys to transport his
hives before the floods took them!
13. • Wild Bees build their honey combs about
1 and 3/8 inches apart. Honey comb is
about one inch wide, so this left a 3/8 inch
passageway between the combs.
• Some beekeepers built hives that forced
the bees to build combs along "top bars"
that were spaced about 1 and 3/8 inches
apart.
