History of Beekeeping

Richard Vanderziel gave a fascinating and well-attended presentation on the History of Beekeeping and harvesting during the Murray County Fair.  VandeZiel first became involved in beekeeping in the 1970s. Approximately eight years later he decided to hang it up due to the demands of farming and raising a family. Ten years ago he decided to venture back into the bee industry and enjoys sharing his passion and information regarding raising bees.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics date the keeping of the bees and extraction of honey back 15,000 years. The domestication of bees can be traced back about 6,000 years. The straw skep, a form of woven straw hive probably dates back to the beginning of Christianity. By the 1800’s the first wooden boxes were used to collect honey. However, issues were connected to each method of honey collection. The only way to extract the honey was to start a fire and smoke out the bees – thus killing them to gain access to the honey.

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