Honey Bees in the American Colonies Essay - 761 Words

Many people know very little about how honey bees have been apart of our history from colonial times. Why were honey bees important to the colonial beekeeper? How were the bees kept? Does beekeeping now, vary from what it was then? These are all questions that must be asked. The honey bee is a unique insect that has been apart of the history of our country for centuries. Beekeeping has changed over time yet many of the essential results of keeping honey bees are unchanged. Lets look at their similarities and differences. The honey bee is not native to North America. In Notes on Virginia1 Thomas Jefferson stated: â€Å"The honey-bee is not a native of our continent. Marcgrove, indeed, mentions a species of the honey-bee in Brazil. But†¦show more content†¦Primarily the use of honey; the bee’s number one product, was an excellent sweetener5 as sugar was an expensive commodity. Cakes and cornbread might have been enhanced by the presence of honey. The antibacter ial properties may have been used medicinally in colonial homes as well. In the county of Essex, Massachusetts the year 1660 a stand of bees was assessed at five pounds;6 a large sum in those days. This proves that not only their yield of honey and wax, but also the honey bees themselves were greatly valued by the colonists. Used for candles, the wax was desirable because of its clean burn and non drip qualities.7 Other uses for it included waxing furniture, floors, harnesses and a multitude of other equipment. Pollination did not become a major focus until a much later time. The products honey bees produced were a key part of the colonist’s daily lives, very much like they are for us now. Unlike Colonial America the focus of beekeeping today is on large scale pollination of agricultural crops. We still enjoy our honey and value many of the same products but beekeeping is an industry now. The private beekeeper is not the heart of beekeeping in the twenty-first century. We see business men with thousands of bee colonies pollinating hundreds of acres of fruits, nuts and vegetables all across the country; scientific men with the latest news on Colony Collapse Disorder, and all of itShow MoreRelatedHoney Bee Extinction Essay1735 Words   |  7 Pagesglobe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man† (â€Å"Einstein Once Said†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). After careful thought on this matter, this can be a scary concept to process. Millions of years have passed with the honey bee gracing the earth, and in fact, the honeybee is the only insect that aids in the production of food that is consumed by the human race (â€Å"20 Amazing Honey Bee Facts!†). Imagine going to a grocery store and there beingRead MoreHoney Bees : An Important Role For Plant Pollination Services For Food Production1271 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction The non-native honey bee, Apis mellifera L., plays an important role in plant pollination services, pollinating 90% of commercially insect-pollinated crops (Steffan-Dewenter et al., 2005). Additionally, they produce honey, which is an important international commodity. Understanding the ecology of honey bees is imperative as humans are becoming increasingly reliant on pollination services for food production. With the upsurge of backyard beekeeping (Salkin, 2012) it is imperativeRead MoreSave Our Honey Bees : America s Bees1738 Words   |  7 PagesSave Our Honey Bees America’s bees are slowly beginning to suffer. The number of hives had been at 6 million during World War 2, and then decreased to 2.6 million in 2006, then fell below 2 million for the first time in memory (Jacobsen). 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What generally relate with bees are their roles in pollination and producing honey and beeswax. So it seems that bees might be nothing to human as it’s easy to find substitutes for honey as flavoring. However, this perception is mistaken. Without bees, aftermath. Over the past decade bee populations have been dropping drastically. A 40% loss of honeybeesRead MoreThe Natural Resources Defence Council Essay1269 Words   |  6 Pageshave put these creatures in; the extinction of honeybees is mutual destruction for both the bees and humans. Humans are only speeding up the process with a multitude of harmful industries and other aspects. Bees are important for United States consumerism, agriculture, and the environment, yet humans continually abuse them, negatively impacting many important aspects of society and contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder. A multitude of people are poorly educated on honeybees, and put