Beekeeping
Honey has been a prized commodity from ancient times. For many, it was the sole source of sugar in the diet. It was often used for religious purposes, as medicinal ointment and fermented to make an alcoholic drink.
Wild honey was once the only kind available. Bee cultivation, or apiculture, became a well-developed craft by the second millennium b.c. in Egypt. Bees were kept in pottery or in bark. The honey was often used in bartering as well as for local consumption. Bee culture was also practiced in Greece and Asia Minor.
The first true manmade beehive was invented in 1789 by Swiss naturalist Francois Huber. It contained movable frames that opened in book-like fashion. A primer comb was added; the bees did the rest of the work. Further improvements were made during the 1800s, including hives that used a synthetic comb foundation. By the 1880s, enough had been learned about managing bee colonies to make it commercially viable.
Today there are an estimated five million manmade beehives in the United States alone. Each colony, or apiary, has 40 to 75 hives. There must be sufficient numbers of flowering plants to support the apiary and to produce the desired amount of honey. For this reason, apiaries must be kept some distance apart from each other, though bees usually stay within two miles of their hives. It is estimated that bees must travel a total distance of 13,000 miles from flower to flower to collect enough nectar for one pound of honey. In addition to making honey, the bees also pollinate the farmers' crops, a valuable double service.
The nectar is stored in the bees' stomachs for the journey to the hive. The bee will travel in a serpentine path until it reaches its capacity of nectar. It then makes a direct flight, or beeline, to the hive.
At the hive, the nectar is transferred to other bees or directly to the hive cells. The nectar undergoes chemical changes both in the bee's stomach and in the hive that convert it to honey. The honey serves as food for the bees. When a beekeeper collects the honey, some must be left in the hive for the bees.
Collecting honey requires patience and skill. A professional keeper may shun protective gear and move slowly and deliberately while receiving only a few stings, having built an immunity to the stings' poison.
In recent years, concerns have been raised about so called killer bees, Africanized bees (Apis Mellifica Adansonni) that are significantly more agressive than current domestic varieties, an effect that increases with each subsequent generation. Through a cooperative program with Mexican beekeepers, the United States government has been tracking killer bee development in that country and in the Southern United States since the late 1980s. Although not quite as dangerous as some early reports suggested, these bees, which have been in Mexico since the early 1990s, are now resident in hives in Texas and other states, and have been known to kill nearby cattle. Some beekeepers have experimented with changing the queen bee of a hive each year in an attempt to slow the advent of the ferocious characteristics of the bees. Beekeepin continues to be a popular hobby for many people despite a continuing increase in the number of Africanized bees.in this country.
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