Guide Note

Beekeeping, or apiculture, is the raising of bees for honey, beeswax, crop pollination or for the sale of the bees themselves. There are over 12,000 beekeepers in the United States who maintain an estimated 2.4 million beehives.

Fast Facts

1. The areas where commercial bees are kept are called "apiaries"
2. Average hive size:
   1. Winter: 5,000 bees
   2. Summer: 75,000 bees
3. Classes of bees:
   1. Queen: The only sexually mature female of the colony whose function is to lay eggs
   2. Worker: Female offspring of the Queen that gather nectar and look after the larvae
   3. Drone: Male offspring of the Queen that act as her mates
4. Queen bee lifespan: 1-2 years
5. Worker and drone bee lifespan: 6-16 weeks

Robbing honey from wild hives is considered to be one of the most ancient human farming techniques and has been a common practice for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of honey harvesting comes from a rock painting dating back to 13,000 BC. Aboriginal tribes in still rob honey from wild beehives on every continent except North America and Antarctica.

Domestication of bees developed in Ancient Egypt and jars of honey have been found in many Pharoahs' tombs. In the ruins of the Rehov in Israel, there was a collection of 30 intact bee hives dating back to 900 BC.