HISTORY AND CURIOSITY OF BEEECULTURING

The antiquity of beekeeping as a human activity dates back to the Egyptian era.

Cave paintings have been found showing beekeeping activities of approximately 7,000 and even 8,000 years old, of which scenes have been observed where honey is collected in wild hives.

Traces from approximately 2,400 BC were discovered where it is seen that man made an attempt to maintain a colony of bees inside a hollow trunk.

Indeed, there is evidence of the use of bees by the Egyptians, who moved hives in their boats through the Nile River.

Beekeeping activities (ruins, paintings, writings, etc.) have also been found in ancient Greece, Rome and Asia Minor where vestiges of beekeeping knowledge and honey and beeswax exploitation have been seen.

But traces of beekeeping activities have not only been found in Europe and Asia, but also in cultures that were not known until approximately the second millennium AD and included in what was called the New World (Incas, Mayans, American Indians, etc.), which led to some more productive species being introduced by European expeditions in the discovery of America in 1942.

Beekeeping was born when man tried to get to know the world of bees and dedicating his time to caring for, controlling and protecting the colonies.

At first, the bee colonies settled in the same natural places where they had their own home, although later, for security or convenience reasons, hives were artificially constructed using materials that existed in the natural environment ( cork, tree trunks, vegetable bark, wood and boards), which gave rise to the appearance of apiaries. (They were the places where beekeepers' hives were found and located)

But in spite of everything, the most important date in the history of world beekeeping corresponds to the year 1851 when Loreno Lorraine Langstroth (American priest) discovered a utility with mobile frames that, placed at a distance, the bees could not build bridges between them. , could be placed inside artificial hives and allowed rapid extraction, exchange and providing many advantages to beekeepers.

The invention quickly spread throughout the United States, crossing borders and reaching Europe through England in the second half of the 19th century.

This discovery was very important and the success of its use was such that it gave rise to what we now know as modern beekeeping, being today the most widely used beekeeping technique.