Many people know that keeping bees is among the oldest activities by humans. By looking at the various changes that have occurred in beekeeping over the many years, people can get a hint as to for how long the activity has been practiced. Although bees have been in existence for many years now, it was much easier to keep them years back as opposed to how it is today.
One way we can understand just how important bees are is by looking at how long beekeeping has been practiced in many different parts of the world. Cave drawings and paintings found in parts of Africa and Spain indicate that people in those regions kept bees about 15,000 years ago. Getting honey as food from bees was one of the main reasons people kept bees. It was used for sweetening drinks and foods and making anti-bacterial agents as well as wine. Other than honey, bees produced wax, which made medicine, glue and candles as well as a popular traditional drink called mead.
Bees were mainly located in forests and other sheltered parts of the land. This made the process of collecting wax and honey difficult and hence prompted people to make their own hives to bring the bees closer to them. History dictates that Egypt was one of the places that made the initial beehives, which were made out of anything that could create dark compartments where the bees would work.
Other civilizations to be referenced as having made their own beehives are the Romans and the Ancient Greeks. This practice was necessitated by the fact that collecting honey from wild hives normally meant that they were destroyed every time honey was collected.
The first renowned man-made hive was made by an Italian Immigrant who lived in America. He drew most of his inspiration from reading a beekeeping book published in the early 1850s and says that he understood how bees made their own honeycombs. This knowledge made it much easier for him to create hives that worked and it evolved into the modern hives commonly used today.
The honeycombs were made in a way that they could come out of the hive for inspection then put back in without breaking apart. That means that no other beehive or bee colony would be destroyed while gathering honey. People have discovered over the years several ways to help the bees produce more honey as well as make a difference in other aspects such as pollination.