Mythology and History of the Honey Bee

MYTHOLOGY    

Legends about bees and beekeeping come from all over the world, including Egypt, Greece, Africa and China. In Egypt bee keeping was a sacred art as the honey was thought to have come from the tears of the sun god Ra. Jars of honey and ceramic jars used for bee hives have been found in Egyptian tombs so much as 2,422 BC. Pictures of hieroglyphs of bees have been found on many temple walls in Egypt. Sealed pots of honey were found in the tomb of King Tut.

this picture was taken from an old temple wall depicting a bee keeper pouring honey into a pot surrounded by his bees.

     In Greek mythology the honey bee finds itself in a very prestigious spot as honey was considered the food of the gods. When Zeus the chief god of Greek mythology was a baby he was fed on nothing but honey. The legend of beekeeping in Greece started with a young god named Aristaues, who was the keeper of bees. Aristaues sacrificed four bulls to the gods and from the entrails came thousands of honey bees which he used to teach beekeeping to man  kind.

ancient Greek coins such as this one were made with the depiction of the honey bee.

HISTORY

There is no solid date for when mankind began domesticating bees, however some of the earliest evidence comes from rock paintings dating back 13,000 BC. The honey bee is thought to be prehistoric, and fossils of the apis have been found to be over 14 million years old. There are only seven kinds of recognized honey bee with 44 sub species. Although honey bees make up a small amount of the 22,000 species of bee in the world, they honey bee is responsible for 80 percent of all pollination. without the honey bee our food sources would dwindle and eventually die out. The type of honey bee normally used for bee keeping is the European bee. The African bee, another species of bee is what you DON'T want when bee keeping. these bees are known to be very aggressive and to not produce as much as the European, so when buying honey bees make sure you get the right kind. As my mentor told me "the African bee also known as the killer bee can fly as fast as a person can sprint and will go 3 miles from the hive. if you decide to raise African honey bees, just make sure you can sprint for three miles. Don't jump in water, whatever you do. The African bee will hover above the surface and wait for you to come up."

the European honey bee