BEEKEEPING

BEEKEEPING. The honeybee, Apis mellifera, is not native to North America. The common black bees of Europe were imported to Virginia in 1621, followed by the Italian, Egyptian, Cyprian, Tunisian, Carniolan, and Caucasian strains. Honeybees spread slowly throughout the United States, not reaching Florida until 1763 or California until 1856. As postal and railway systems expanded near the end of the nineteenth century, honeybees spread more rapidly as entrepreneurs developed new procedures for shipping live swarms of bees in packages without combs.

The Reverend Lorenzo L. Langstroth, of Andover, Massachusetts, is known as the father of American beekeeping. He developed the movable-frame hive in 1852, which, with minor modifications, was still being used in the early 2000s. Langstroth was also noted for his book Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee: A Bee Keeper's Manual. His contemporary Moses Quinby wrote Mysteries of Beekeeping Explained. The publication of these two books in 1853 marked the real beginning of beekeeping in the United States. Both Langstroth and Quinby made major contributions to practical beekeeping that led ultimately to a new industry. The development of the movable-frame hive, the wax foundation, the bee smoker, the honey extractor, package bee shipments, and techniques of queen production revolutionized beekeeping. In the same period, two enduring beekeeping trade journals made their first appearance: The American Bee Journal (1861) and Gleanings in Bee Culture (1873). The American Bee Association, formed in 1860, was the first national organization of beekeepers.

Much of the progress of the industry in the twentieth century can be attributed to earlier research in apiculture conducted by state and federal scientists. For example, the development of instrumental insemination of queens by Lloyd R. Watson made controlled bee breeding possible. This technique, subsequently improved by others, enabled bee breeders to develop and maintain stocks for specific purposes, such as gathering more nectar, efficiently pollinating specific crops, or adapting to specific environ-mental conditions. Research in the United States also led to the discovery of the pathogenic agent of American foulbrood disease, the use of chemotherapeutic agents for the control of bee diseases, and improved bee management and technology. These breakthroughs resulted in larger honey yields, more efficient methods of harvesting and processing honey, and more efficient use of bees for pollination.

In 1899 the beekeeping industry produced 30,983 tons of honey and 882 tons of beeswax. By 1970, 4.6 million colonies produced 117,395 tons of honey and 2,324 tons of beeswax, which were valued at $40.8 million and $2.8 million, respectively. By the turn of the twenty-first century, however, production in the United States averaged only some 100,000 tons of honey annually. A variety of factors explained the declining production: the loss of agricultural land to highways and subdivisions; the spread of parasitic tracheal and varroa mites after the mid-1980s; a steady decline in the number of beekeepers, from 212,000 in 1976 to 125,000 in 1992; and stiff competition from foreign producers, first in Latin America and later in China.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Crane, Eva. The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting. New York: Routledge, 1999.

H.Shimanuki/c. w.

See alsoEpidemics and Public Health ; Railroads .