How Long Have Humans Been Collecting Honey From Beehives?
Has there ever existed one single individual in history who claimed to not like the taste of honey? As far as most people are concerned, honey is a universally beloved edible substance. Imagine the excitement felt by our ancestors once they discovered honey. Given the undeniably delicious taste of honey, you would think ancient humans wasted no time collecting as much of the sweet substance as possible. But when, exactly, did humans start collecting honey from honey bee combs? How long have humans been constructing beehives for efficient honey collection? Given the danger involved with collecting honey from honey bee nests, how did early beekeepers protect themselves from swarms of stinging honey bees? According to experts, even our pre-human ancestors collected honey for their own personal consumption.
Bees first began producing honey as far back as 200 million years ago. The primate relatives of humans, such as chimpanzees and monkeys, poke sticks into beehives located within trees and below the ground in order to extract sweet-tasting honey. It has been theorized that the earliest humans in Africa extracted honey by resorting to the same method. When humans first migrated out of Africa, they continued to search for honey in unknown regions. Archeological evidence shows that humans used baskets and gourds for honey collection in what is now Europe all the way back in 8,000 BCE. The Egyptians may have been the first people to have practiced modern beekeeping as they built beehives out of clay before selling the resultant honey to consumers. During this time, bees were raised professionally within hundreds of beehives located on large farms. These farms were owned by the Egyption government, and beekeepers were skilled slaves. Ancient Egyptian commoners were able to purchase honey from stores, and honey was also gifted to small-time government leaders by powerful Egyption politicians. By the seventeenth century, wood became the material of choice for beehive construction. The first wood-constructed beehives were octagonal in shape as the inventor of wooden hives believed that bees naturally preferred octagonal shapes that are similar in appearance to honeycombs. Octagonal beehives were eventually replaced by modern box hives in 1851.
Have you ever tasted pure honey straight from the hive?