1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:18,080 Speaker 1: I'm Tray Stevie Wilson, and I'm Holly Fry. I'm fond 4 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: of bees, me too. Yeah, I don't know if I've 5 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:24,639 Speaker 1: mentioned that on the show before. And you know, I 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: spent way too much time yesterday ussuring a bee out 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 1: of my garage so I could close the door. So 8 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:34,760 Speaker 1: this is especially timely. Yeah, you know, continuing the theme 9 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,600 Speaker 1: of wanting to do some episodes that feel like they 10 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: are not catastrophically upsetting because of the state of the world. 11 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: I really like bees and bee keeping as you might 12 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: think of it today with square hives and the beekeeper 13 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,400 Speaker 1: in the white suit with a big veiled hat. I mean, 14 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 1: that's a relatively recent invention, but bee keeping has a 15 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: practice has existed for thousands of years. Basically all over 16 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:06,480 Speaker 1: the world. Every continent except Antarctica has native bee species 17 00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: that store at least some honey in their nests, and 18 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: almost without exception, people who have lived near these bees 19 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: have developed methods to keep them and manage them, either 20 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: in their nests out in the wild, or in hives 21 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: that are made for that purpose. So this is really 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,280 Speaker 1: a global story. It's one that has lots of pieces 23 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,400 Speaker 1: that overlap and lots of different methods being practiced at 24 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: the same time. So, for example, if you're listening to 25 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,400 Speaker 1: the episode and we're talking about methods of tracking wild 26 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: bees that are about two thousand years old, and you're thinking, 27 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: but wait, weren't people keeping bees in hives by that point? 28 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,479 Speaker 1: We will get to that part two. Um. Also, we're 29 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:46,480 Speaker 1: using the past heads for a lot of this episode 30 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: because we're talking about techniques and practices that started way 31 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,600 Speaker 1: in the past. But in a lot of cases, these 32 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:55,400 Speaker 1: same things, including hunting bees and keeping bees out in 33 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 1: the wild, like they're all they're still practiced today. They 34 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: did not go away. So most of humanities beekeeping efforts 35 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 1: have involved social bees that store honey in their nests. 36 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 1: Today that tends to be one of various subspecies of 37 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: the western or European honeybee or APIs mellifera, but there 38 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: are lots of other bees that also store honey and 39 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,360 Speaker 1: they are part of bee keeping history to The giant 40 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: honeybee or APIs dorsada, is native to southern and Southeast Asia, 41 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: most tropical regions of the world have their own native 42 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: species of stingless bees. That name is something of a misnomer. 43 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 1: Most stingless bees do have stingers, but those stingers are 44 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:37,079 Speaker 1: smaller and they don't usually have structures for injecting venom. 45 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:41,760 Speaker 1: Other bees, including bumble bees, also store some honey, but 46 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: in much smaller amounts, and there are also honey storing 47 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:49,520 Speaker 1: insects besides bees, including some species of wasps and ants. 48 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: People have harvested and used the honey and other resources 49 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: that all of these insects produced and store in their nests, 50 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: and in some cases they've kept these insects in one 51 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: way or another, But for the most part today we 52 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: are focusing on honey bees, giant honey bees, and stingless bees, 53 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:10,080 Speaker 1: which have historically made up just the vast majority of 54 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: beekeeping efforts around the world. I'm thinking of the eddy 55 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: is oard line. If bees make honey, do earwigs make chutney? 56 00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: Um Bees have been on Earth for longer than humans have. 57 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:26,560 Speaker 1: Fossil evidence shows that flowering plants existed at least one 58 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: million years ago during the Cretaceous period, so did insects 59 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: that fed from the pollen and nectar found in those flowers. 60 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: The oldest fossilized bee honey is about fifty million years old. 61 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,720 Speaker 1: Of course, there is no written record of this, but 62 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:46,920 Speaker 1: based on the behavior of other primates, it is incredibly 63 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,040 Speaker 1: likely that our earliest ancestors found and rated these nests 64 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,119 Speaker 1: as soon as they realized that they were there. So yeah, 65 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: it's it's it's not a far logical leap that basically 66 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: as soon as hominids rely there is something sweet and 67 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: delicious over there that they would have figured out how 68 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: a way to get at it. And then the brood, 69 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: like the immature bees that are in the honeypoon like 70 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: they're a source of protein. There's just a lot. There's 71 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff you can get out of nests 72 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: that people were clearly getting way back before recorded history. 73 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:24,480 Speaker 1: Our first documentation of humans interaction with bees goes back 74 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: to rock and cave art from the Mesolithic period, and 75 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: that period started about twenty thousand years ago. This artwork 76 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:35,479 Speaker 1: exists in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia and it shows 77 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: people in a variety of situations. The exact details vary 78 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: based on what kind of bees lived in a particular 79 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,359 Speaker 1: area and what people did to hunt them and harvest 80 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:49,560 Speaker 1: their nests. For example, in places where bees nest in cavities, 81 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:53,160 Speaker 1: figures are shown on ladders next to holes surrounded by 82 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,719 Speaker 1: flying insects, while others in the scene are holding things 83 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 1: like buckets or what maybe smokers to pacify or drive 84 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:04,039 Speaker 1: away those insects. In places where giant honey bees nest 85 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: out in the open, people are climbing ladders are scaling 86 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,919 Speaker 1: cliffs to get to the exposed combs. There's also a 87 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: painting at the Chata archaeological site in what is now 88 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,440 Speaker 1: Turkey that dates back to about sixty d b C. 89 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: Which appears to show honeycombs with immature bees inside the cells. 90 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: That suggests that the people who made the art had 91 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,800 Speaker 1: a lot of firsthand familiarity would bees and their nests. 92 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: There's also some Mesolithic cave art showing bees importance to 93 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: other animals. One rock painting in eastern Spain shows what 94 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:41,400 Speaker 1: appears to be an animal's paw reaching toward a hole 95 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: that has flying insects around it, so that's most likely 96 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: a bear trying to get a nest of honey. And 97 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,000 Speaker 1: we have evidence of some of the things that people 98 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: made using what they harvested from bees. Nests. For example, 99 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,839 Speaker 1: Archaeologists have dated artifacts made using the lost wax process 100 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: to about thirty five hundred BC. These artifacts, which were 101 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 1: made in the region around the Dead Sea, were made 102 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:07,120 Speaker 1: by creating a model out of bees wax and then 103 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:10,600 Speaker 1: making a cast of that model using sand or clay. 104 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:13,200 Speaker 1: The wax would burn away or be lost, which is 105 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: where it gets its name when the mold was fired, 106 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 1: and then molten metal would be poured into the space 107 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:22,680 Speaker 1: in the mold. Humanity's first honey and bee hunts were 108 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 1: probably pretty opportunistic. People would happen upon a nest of 109 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,640 Speaker 1: bees somewhere and write it, probably without a lot of 110 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,839 Speaker 1: protection from stings or, in the case of stingless bees, 111 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 1: from things like bites or irritating substances that they carry 112 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: on their legs. Early opportunistic bee hunts probably also didn't 113 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,440 Speaker 1: do a lot to protect the bee colony that was 114 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:46,919 Speaker 1: being rated. People would carry away everything that they could 115 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: from the nest, and when the human population was pretty 116 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: small and bee colonies were really abundant, there still would 117 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,560 Speaker 1: have been lots of unaffected colonies that so that the 118 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: bees themselves survived as a species. As soon societies developed 119 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:05,480 Speaker 1: the concept of personal property and laws related to that property. 120 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: There were also laws about who owned bees. These laws 121 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:13,600 Speaker 1: included things like the ownership of nests on a person's property, 122 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: the ownership of swarms that hadn't yet found a new 123 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 1: nesting site, how nests had to be marked to show 124 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: who owned them, and punishments and restitution to be paid 125 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: if someone harmed someone else's bees or nests. And of course, 126 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: on a more general note, there are references to bees, bees, wax, 127 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:36,080 Speaker 1: and honey all over literature all over the world, going 128 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: back to the earliest uses of written language. Over time, 129 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: opportunistic bee hunting and just sort of taking advantage of 130 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:48,120 Speaker 1: bees that were already there evolved into a more intentional process, 131 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:52,000 Speaker 1: with people methodically looking for bees and their nests instead 132 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:55,400 Speaker 1: of basically harvesting nests as they happened to find them, 133 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:58,840 Speaker 1: and this essentially happened everywhere on Earth that had both 134 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: people and honey storing bees, with the only exceptions being 135 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: in places that developed religious prohibitions against harming insects or 136 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 1: depriving them of their honey or their brood. The exact 137 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,240 Speaker 1: steps involved in hunting bees depended on what kind of 138 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: bees lived in a particular area, but in general, people 139 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: started by watching for bees, either at water sources or 140 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: near flowers. In about the year fifty CE, Roman writer 141 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:29,600 Speaker 1: Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella described it this way quote, First 142 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 1: we must try to discover how far away they are, 143 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,480 Speaker 1: and for this purpose liquid red ochre must be prepared. Then, 144 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:39,520 Speaker 1: after touching the backs of the bees with stocks smeared 145 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 1: with this liquid, as they are drinking at the spring 146 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: waiting in the same place, you will be able to 147 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:48,040 Speaker 1: more easily recognize the bees when they return. If they 148 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: are not slow in returning, you know that they dwell 149 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,840 Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. But if they are late in doing so, 150 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,559 Speaker 1: you will calculate the distance by the period of their delay. 151 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: So bees obviously are small they move fast, so it 152 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:03,960 Speaker 1: can be hard to track a bee, even for an 153 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: experienced bee hunter. So people also figured out ways to 154 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:10,600 Speaker 1: make it easier to follow a bee back to the nest, 155 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:14,320 Speaker 1: and some cultures people have physically attached something to the 156 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:17,560 Speaker 1: bees to make them more visible, like a very fine thread, 157 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:19,960 Speaker 1: or a piece of grass or a little bit of paper. 158 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:23,640 Speaker 1: This idea is so charming to me, but also I'm like, man, 159 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:26,680 Speaker 1: it's how challenging it must be to just attach something 160 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:30,960 Speaker 1: to a bee while it's drinking some water. Uh. This 161 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:33,680 Speaker 1: would both make the bee easier to see by basically 162 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:36,559 Speaker 1: sticking a little flag on it, and then also slow 163 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: the bee down as it tried to carry this extra 164 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:41,880 Speaker 1: weight while it flew back to the nest. People also 165 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:44,040 Speaker 1: figured out ways to take advantage of the fact that 166 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:46,920 Speaker 1: bees generally fly in a straight line when going back 167 00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,920 Speaker 1: to their nest, So if you collect several bees in 168 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,720 Speaker 1: a portable box or trap, you can let them out 169 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: one at a time, following each bee until you lose 170 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: sight of it. Columella has more detail about how this 171 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,160 Speaker 1: was done in the Roman Empire, writing quote. The joint 172 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 1: of a read with the knots at either end is cut, 173 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: and a hole board in the side of the rod 174 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 1: thus formed through which you should drop a little honey 175 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:13,440 Speaker 1: or boiled down must. The rod is then placed near 176 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,840 Speaker 1: a spring. Then, when a number of bees attracted by 177 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:19,319 Speaker 1: the smell of the sweet liquid have crept into it, 178 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:22,200 Speaker 1: the rod is taken away and the thumb placed on 179 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:24,959 Speaker 1: the whole, and one bee only released at a time, 180 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:27,959 Speaker 1: which when it has escaped, shows the line of its 181 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: flight to the observer, and he, as long as he 182 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:34,600 Speaker 1: can keep up, follows it as it flies away. Then 183 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:36,680 Speaker 1: when he can no longer see the bee, he lets 184 00:10:36,679 --> 00:10:39,080 Speaker 1: out another, and if it seeks the same quarter of 185 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,719 Speaker 1: the heavens, he persists in following his former tracks. Otherwise, 186 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:46,280 Speaker 1: he opens the hole and allows them to emerge one 187 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:49,320 Speaker 1: after another, and marks the direction in which most of 188 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:52,560 Speaker 1: them fly home, and pursues them until he has led 189 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: to the lurking place of the swarm. Colamela describes using 190 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: a piece of read for making this bee tracking trap, 191 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:03,560 Speaker 1: but other cultures have used this same basic process, making 192 00:11:03,559 --> 00:11:07,400 Speaker 1: their traps out of other materials, including antler's horns and 193 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: crafted boxes made of something like wood or metal that 194 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:14,880 Speaker 1: were created specifically for that purpose. Historically, people have also 195 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: observed other animals to figure out where bees might be nesting, 196 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:22,440 Speaker 1: particularly animals like bears and honey badgers, which are also 197 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: known to be fond of honey, and in parts of 198 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,960 Speaker 1: tropical Africa and Asia, there is also the honey guide bird. 199 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: These are birds that are fond of eating bees, wax, 200 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,840 Speaker 1: and be larvae, but can't easily get into the nest 201 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: without help, so after finding a nest, the honey guide 202 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,720 Speaker 1: will try to attract the attention of a mammal like 203 00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:43,800 Speaker 1: a badger or even a person. For at least five 204 00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:48,320 Speaker 1: hundred years, people in some parts of Africa, including Tanzania, Zambia, 205 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,040 Speaker 1: and Mozambique have developed calls to basically let the honey 206 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:54,400 Speaker 1: guides know that they are ready to go on a hunt. 207 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,640 Speaker 1: And exactly what that call sounds like varies from place 208 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:01,640 Speaker 1: to place. This uh relationship between honey guide birds and 209 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:06,080 Speaker 1: people delights me same. It's so cool just in general, 210 00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:07,959 Speaker 1: the fact that the bird is like, I want to 211 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,520 Speaker 1: get in this nest. I can't buy myself. I'm gonna 212 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:14,720 Speaker 1: flap my wings around and make noise of something bigger. 213 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: So as people moved from harvesting nests that they happen 214 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 1: to find too intentionally searching for them, they also moved 215 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,559 Speaker 1: from just harvesting the nests when they found them to 216 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:29,120 Speaker 1: tending those nests in the wild. People have done things 217 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:32,120 Speaker 1: like wrapping bee trees to insulate them in the winter, 218 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 1: keeping the nests entrances clear, enlarging a cavity where the 219 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:39,960 Speaker 1: bees were nesting to make more room, or hollowing out 220 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:44,240 Speaker 1: similar cavities nearby with the hope of attracting a swarm. 221 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 1: People have also improved wild nests to make it easier 222 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:51,959 Speaker 1: to access their contents, things like adding little doors into 223 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 1: a tree that a person could reach into and then 224 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:57,760 Speaker 1: close the door behind them, or building steps and ladders 225 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,439 Speaker 1: to reach nests that are in high places. Eventually, people 226 00:13:01,559 --> 00:13:05,640 Speaker 1: also started building structures specifically with the hope of attracting bees, 227 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: including in places where the bees couldn't have survived otherwise, like, 228 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: for example, building thick walled cavities at oases in the 229 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:17,559 Speaker 1: Sahara Desert with the hope of sustaining bee colonies inside 230 00:13:17,559 --> 00:13:20,440 Speaker 1: the walls. That gets a little closer to the way 231 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,800 Speaker 1: most people think of bee keeping today, with purpose built 232 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,960 Speaker 1: enclosures to house bees in a specific location, and we'll 233 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:38,480 Speaker 1: get more into that after a sponsor break. In a 234 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:42,480 Speaker 1: very general sense, a beehive is any man made enclosure 235 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:45,200 Speaker 1: for housing bees, and people have been keeping bees in 236 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:49,480 Speaker 1: hives for a really long time, overlapping all that be 237 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:52,800 Speaker 1: hunting that we just talked about earlier. Uh, this possibly 238 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:56,240 Speaker 1: goes back all the way to the very beginnings of agriculture. 239 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:01,320 Speaker 1: Paper published in the journal Nature in described bees wax 240 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,640 Speaker 1: lipid residues that were found in Neolithic pottery samples from Europe, 241 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,720 Speaker 1: the Near East, and northern Africa, and these findings suggest 242 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:13,480 Speaker 1: that the pots might have been used as hives, although 243 00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:16,320 Speaker 1: it's also possible that they were used to store wax 244 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:19,200 Speaker 1: that people had harvested out in the wild. We do 245 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 1: know that people were keeping bees in hives in the 246 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: Nile Delta by about five thousand BC. An Ancient Egyptian 247 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:29,920 Speaker 1: art is full of depictions of bees and hives and beekeeping. 248 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,600 Speaker 1: One relief dating back to the Fifth Dynasty, which started 249 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: around five b C, shows beekeepers at work in an apiary, 250 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:42,160 Speaker 1: suggesting that beekeeping was well established in ancient Egypt at 251 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:45,600 Speaker 1: that point. Honey bees also have a place in Egyptian 252 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: mythology as being transformed from the tears of the god 253 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:53,280 Speaker 1: Raw after they fell to earth. The first written depiction 254 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,040 Speaker 1: of a beehive in China dates back to about three 255 00:14:56,120 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 1: hundred BC, although the first Chinese references to honey as 256 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: medicine are ten times older than that. In Mesoamerica, people 257 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,840 Speaker 1: started keeping stingless bees and hives made out of calabash 258 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,040 Speaker 1: gourds somewhere between three d b c e and three 259 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 1: hundred CEES so and a lot of different parts of 260 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:15,680 Speaker 1: the world. This goes back for thousands of years. These 261 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 1: first bee hives tended to be pretty simple. Most were 262 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:23,040 Speaker 1: horizontally oriented cylinders with a small opening at one end 263 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: that was big enough for bees to pass through most 264 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:29,480 Speaker 1: of the time, but not always. The other end had 265 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,640 Speaker 1: some kind of removable covering to allow people to harvest 266 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:35,800 Speaker 1: from the hive, sometimes after using smoke to drive the 267 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:39,000 Speaker 1: bees away from that end of the hive first. In 268 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: some regions, these hives were like a long, narrow pot 269 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,040 Speaker 1: placed on its side, with removable covering at one end 270 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:47,080 Speaker 1: that had a hole in the middle for the bees 271 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: to pass through. Around the world, these horizontal hives were 272 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,360 Speaker 1: made using a variety of materials, hollow logs, including logs 273 00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:57,640 Speaker 1: that had been cut from trees with the bees already 274 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:01,880 Speaker 1: inside and then taken somewhere else, straw or grass mats 275 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:06,080 Speaker 1: rolled into a cylinder and then covered with mud, ter, clay, pottery. 276 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:11,040 Speaker 1: Sometimes people scored the interior of pottery cylinders with shallow 277 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: lines that were cut into the surface, both to give 278 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,920 Speaker 1: the bees a roughened anchor point when they started to 279 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:19,840 Speaker 1: build their honeycombs, and also to encourage them to build 280 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 1: those combs in a particular direction. Other hive designs followed 281 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:27,800 Speaker 1: from these basic horizontal cylinders. Some were similar to the 282 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: ones we just described, but rectangular rather than cylindrical. Others 283 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:37,000 Speaker 1: were vertically oriented rather than horizontal. The giant honey bees 284 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 1: that are native to parts of Asia don't nest in 285 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:42,640 Speaker 1: enclosed spaces, so in that part of the world people 286 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:47,320 Speaker 1: attach slanted boards to trees as anchor points for honeycombs. 287 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:50,080 Speaker 1: These are known as rafters because of their resemblance to 288 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:52,600 Speaker 1: the rafters in the roof of a house, and it 289 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,000 Speaker 1: is not just a matter of sticking them to a tree. 290 00:16:55,640 --> 00:17:00,320 Speaker 1: Beekeepers have to account for wind, sunlight, surrounding foliage more 291 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,200 Speaker 1: when selecting the exact right spot to hang a rafter. 292 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:07,200 Speaker 1: In some places, particularly in Western Europe, people have also 293 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:10,199 Speaker 1: kept bees in skeps that are woven from things like 294 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:14,640 Speaker 1: straw or wicker. These look pretty much like upside down baskets, 295 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: with the open mouth resting on a flat surface and 296 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: a small opening on the side that acts as a 297 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:23,359 Speaker 1: doorway for the bees. Especially in places where the weather 298 00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:27,080 Speaker 1: was cool and damp, like for example, in England, skeps 299 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,200 Speaker 1: were usually kept in little shelves or shelters that offered 300 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,399 Speaker 1: some kind of protection from the elements. Most of the time, 301 00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:36,199 Speaker 1: a skep is harvest by lifting it up off of 302 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:38,800 Speaker 1: that flat surface that it rests on and then removing 303 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,400 Speaker 1: the contents from underneath, but some skeps also have sort 304 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:45,520 Speaker 1: of a hinged lid up at the top. In many cases, 305 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:50,680 Speaker 1: harvesting these fixed comb hives involved killing the bee colony inside. 306 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,200 Speaker 1: In some cases, as many bees as possible were shaken 307 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:57,439 Speaker 1: or drummed into another hive first, but a lot of 308 00:17:57,480 --> 00:17:59,680 Speaker 1: the time the loss of the hive was just considered 309 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 1: part of the process. People captured swarms of bees in 310 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:06,600 Speaker 1: the springtime, tended the hive for a season, and then 311 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:10,480 Speaker 1: harvested them before winter, starting that whole process over again 312 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:14,199 Speaker 1: the following spring. Or a beekeeper might leave the hives 313 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: that seemed most likely to survive the winter unharvested, with 314 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,399 Speaker 1: the hope that they would swarm and fill empty hives 315 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:23,680 Speaker 1: in the spring. So this was one of the reasons 316 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:26,400 Speaker 1: why people started trying to figure out ways to make 317 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,760 Speaker 1: bee hives that had removable combs to try to preserve 318 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:34,080 Speaker 1: more of the bee colonies. If you could easily remove 319 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:37,879 Speaker 1: just some sections of honeycolm without damaging the others or 320 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 1: the hive itself, That could preserve the colony. Also, at 321 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:45,000 Speaker 1: least in theory, such a harvesting method might also be 322 00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:49,119 Speaker 1: easier and cause less agitation for the bees, maybe leading 323 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,720 Speaker 1: to fewer stings on the beekeeper. The first hives with 324 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:56,320 Speaker 1: removable combs were vertically oriented and opened at the top, 325 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,159 Speaker 1: with a series of slats or bars placed over the 326 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,040 Speaker 1: opening instead one solid lid. People had figured out that 327 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,119 Speaker 1: if you left some space between each slat, the bees 328 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,639 Speaker 1: would build separate combs, one per slat, and then you 329 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:12,200 Speaker 1: could remove a slat from the hive, taking it in 330 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,199 Speaker 1: the attached comb out of the hive, while leaving the 331 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:18,520 Speaker 1: rest of the combs untouched. One of the first written 332 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,760 Speaker 1: records of a hive like this came from French doctor 333 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:26,480 Speaker 1: Jacobspoon and English botanist George Wheeler. They were traveling together 334 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:29,080 Speaker 1: and saw them in use in Attica Grease in sixteen 335 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:34,240 Speaker 1: seventy five, so hundreds of years ago. Similar systems also developed, 336 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:38,480 Speaker 1: apparently separately, in Vietnam. By the time people started developing 337 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: hives with removable combs, they had also started developing bee 338 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,400 Speaker 1: keeping garments that were meant to minimize stings. For much 339 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: of beekeeping history, people didn't really have specific bee keeping 340 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: attire in places where the bees were stingless or very gentle. 341 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:58,400 Speaker 1: It wasn't really needed in tropical regions where people didn't 342 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 1: wear as much clothing. Sometimes times they removed what they 343 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:04,440 Speaker 1: did wear to keep bees from being trapped in that fabric. 344 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,919 Speaker 1: In other places, people may have done sturdy clothing with 345 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:11,160 Speaker 1: long sleeves and gloves, but it really wasn't much different 346 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 1: from what they would wear for other work. By about 347 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:17,359 Speaker 1: the fourteen hundreds, though, people in Europe had started making 348 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,119 Speaker 1: garments specifically for working with bees, which were intended to 349 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:25,400 Speaker 1: minimize the likelihood of getting stung. The details depended somewhat 350 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:29,360 Speaker 1: on what was already fashionable in a particular place. In France, 351 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:33,360 Speaker 1: for example, the first purpose made beekeeping garments were hoods 352 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:35,840 Speaker 1: that covered the face with an insert that was made 353 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:39,160 Speaker 1: of a mesh of horsehair or wire or some other 354 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,159 Speaker 1: material that would offer some protection but also offer at 355 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,479 Speaker 1: least some visibility. Because hoods were a little more common 356 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:50,560 Speaker 1: in in terms of fashion in England, where brimmed hats 357 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,000 Speaker 1: were in fashion, the first beekeeping hoods were large hats 358 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,880 Speaker 1: with veils attached around that brim, and eventually the standard 359 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:03,960 Speaker 1: outfit also evolved to include a blouse. In b Master 360 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:08,440 Speaker 1: John Keys published a book called The Antient b Master's Farewell, 361 00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:12,040 Speaker 1: or Full and Plain Directions for the Management of Bees 362 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 1: to the greatest Advantage, disclosing further improvements of the hives, boxes, 363 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:21,119 Speaker 1: and other instruments to facilitate the operations, especially that of 364 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:25,640 Speaker 1: separating double and trouble hives or boxes. Also brief remarks 365 00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:29,119 Speaker 1: on sheer rock and other distinguished apiators on the continent, 366 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,760 Speaker 1: deduced from a series of experiments during thirty years. Oh 367 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,679 Speaker 1: How I Love a long title. It has a chapter 368 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:41,359 Speaker 1: on b dress in which Keys advises making a hood 369 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:44,440 Speaker 1: by attaching bolting cloth to the brim of an old hand, 370 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:47,000 Speaker 1: with the brim cut down to two inches all the 371 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:50,760 Speaker 1: way around, and the cloth hanging afoot and the areas 372 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,879 Speaker 1: around the nose, chin and neck reinforced with oiled linen. 373 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:59,560 Speaker 1: He also recommends leather gloves, old stockings over the extremities, 374 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:02,920 Speaker 1: and an apron. If you're not familiar with bolting cloth, 375 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:07,199 Speaker 1: it's like a pretty sturdy cloth that was woven to 376 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:11,200 Speaker 1: allow for things like sifting with it. Keith also concludes 377 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,119 Speaker 1: this chapter by saying, quote, women should not meddle with 378 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:18,159 Speaker 1: bees without this bee dress, nor then without the addition 379 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: of a man's coat. And I almost said breaches. Also, 380 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:25,280 Speaker 1: I don't want to tell you to dress like a man, 381 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,600 Speaker 1: but it might be in your best interest. But I'm 382 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 1: not saying it. I love that quote a lot, like 383 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:38,040 Speaker 1: I almost said almost, but maybe not. Keith's book was 384 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,920 Speaker 1: just on the cusp of bee keeping as most people 385 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,439 Speaker 1: might recognize it today, and we're going to get into 386 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:52,520 Speaker 1: that after we first paused for a little sponsor break. 387 00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:56,840 Speaker 1: Starting in about the seventeenth century, a couple of things 388 00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:00,879 Speaker 1: happened in tandem that radically changed be key being pretty 389 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:05,240 Speaker 1: much around the world. One was the colonists started introducing 390 00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:09,400 Speaker 1: European or Western honeybees into other parts of the world 391 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:12,600 Speaker 1: to which they were not native. Uh. This started with 392 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:17,159 Speaker 1: the first successful introduction of European honeybees into Bermuda in 393 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen, with those bees kept cool during the voyage 394 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,040 Speaker 1: across the Atlantic to try to keep them in a 395 00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:27,879 Speaker 1: wintertime state of dormancy during the trip. The colonial introduction 396 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,600 Speaker 1: of the European honeybee into other parts of the world 397 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:34,479 Speaker 1: continued for more than two hundred years, and a lot 398 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,679 Speaker 1: of places European honeybees spread really quickly, with swarms of 399 00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:42,640 Speaker 1: bees pretty much moving ahead of the colonists. The other 400 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,679 Speaker 1: was a shift in beekeeping as it was practiced with 401 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,480 Speaker 1: European honey bees. Starting in the sixteen hundreds, there was 402 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,840 Speaker 1: a huge focus on the idea of scientific bee keeping, 403 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:59,359 Speaker 1: especially in Europe. Beekeepers, naturalists, entomologists, and others all wanted 404 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: to improve a practice of beekeeping based on scientific principles, 405 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:07,000 Speaker 1: ideally in a way that allowed beekeepers to harvest from 406 00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:11,560 Speaker 1: hives without killing the bees. During this process, beekeeping was 407 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,960 Speaker 1: being informed by new scientific discoveries about bees, and science 408 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: was making new discoveries about bees thanks to bee keeping. 409 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:23,439 Speaker 1: One development that was part of this was the observation hive, 410 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,879 Speaker 1: in other words, a hive with transparent walls that allowed 411 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,199 Speaker 1: people to see the bees and their work inside. And 412 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:34,800 Speaker 1: his fourteenth century work Life of Animals, al Zami described 413 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:39,040 Speaker 1: an observation hive that had belonged to Aristotle. Wrote that 414 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,439 Speaker 1: the bees were so annoyed by Aristotle's nosing into their 415 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:46,560 Speaker 1: business that they covered over the glass with Clay. Aristotle 416 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,480 Speaker 1: lived in the fourth century b c. E. And this 417 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:53,119 Speaker 1: fourteenth century reference seems to be the first account of 418 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:56,400 Speaker 1: him having a hive like this, so that's probably not 419 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,360 Speaker 1: accurate that he really did have one, but it does 420 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,120 Speaker 1: mean that by the time Ald Mary was writing, at 421 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 1: least the idea of an observation hive existed. I love 422 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,720 Speaker 1: the idea of bees building a privacy wall. Though by 423 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,480 Speaker 1: the seventeenth century there were definitely observation hives out in 424 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,040 Speaker 1: the world, thanks in part to earlier developments in glassmaking. 425 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: In sixteen fifty four, Dr John Wilkins gave an observation 426 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:27,040 Speaker 1: hive to English gardener and diarist John Evelyn, who documented 427 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,160 Speaker 1: it with a diagram. A year later, on May five, 428 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:34,280 Speaker 1: sixteen sixty five, Samuel Peeps wrote about seeing this hive. 429 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:38,600 Speaker 1: Quote after dinner to Mr Evelyn's he being abroad, we 430 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,320 Speaker 1: walked in his garden, and a lovely noble ground he hath, indeed, 431 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,800 Speaker 1: and among other rarities, a hive of bees. So as 432 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,800 Speaker 1: being hived in glass, you may see the bees making 433 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:53,760 Speaker 1: their honey and combs mighty pleasantly. I agree with Samuel 434 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:56,560 Speaker 1: Peeps that it is mighty pleasant to watch the bees 435 00:25:56,640 --> 00:26:01,000 Speaker 1: through the class. It really is. Anytime I'm a science museum, 436 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,879 Speaker 1: I get super excited when there is a glass bee enclosure. 437 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 1: I think it's oddly soothing. There's something about it that 438 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:11,040 Speaker 1: just puts the brain at wrist. Transparent hives let people 439 00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,720 Speaker 1: get a much closer and more accurate look at a 440 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:16,840 Speaker 1: lot of day to day life of bees, including their 441 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:21,040 Speaker 1: anatomy and their reproduction. In the eighteenth century, for example, 442 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:26,320 Speaker 1: French inventor Renee Antoine fair schol del Remure used transparent 443 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:30,160 Speaker 1: hives to do some really groundbreaking work about be reproduction 444 00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:33,120 Speaker 1: and the way that bees used their bodies to regulate 445 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,400 Speaker 1: the hives temperature. In the late eighteenth century, Swiss entomologist 446 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,760 Speaker 1: and naturalist Francois Huber took this be observation one step 447 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:45,119 Speaker 1: forward with what he called a leaf hive. This was 448 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: a bee hive shaped almost like a book, with each 449 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,600 Speaker 1: comb in its own wooden frame and the frames on 450 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 1: hinges so that you could move from one page to 451 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 1: the next. Huber used this hive in his extensive study 452 00:26:57,320 --> 00:26:59,760 Speaker 1: of bees, which he undertook with the help of his wife, 453 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:03,600 Speaker 1: his son, and his assistant France Suis Bernin, who helped 454 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 1: record visual observations since Hubert was blind. This leaf hive 455 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:13,000 Speaker 1: was enormously beneficial to scientific study, but it was certainly 456 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 1: not practical for everyday beekeeping. But it was developed in 457 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,960 Speaker 1: the middle of a two hundred year effort to create 458 00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:24,639 Speaker 1: a practical, affordable, modular bee hive for European honey bees 459 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,720 Speaker 1: that would allow easy removal and extraction of the honeycombs 460 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,320 Speaker 1: with us little disruption to the lives of the bees 461 00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: as possible. And there were a lot of different people 462 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,000 Speaker 1: who put in the work on this between the sixteen 463 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: hundreds and the eighteen hundreds. Most of them were in England, France, 464 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:43,960 Speaker 1: and other parts of Western Europe. As we noted earlier, 465 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:46,760 Speaker 1: there were a whole lot of bees in the Americans 466 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,840 Speaker 1: um with this introduction of bees through colonialism, but American 467 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,320 Speaker 1: beekeepers weren't really involved in this until the eighteen hundreds 468 00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:57,480 Speaker 1: because before that point there was just so much forage 469 00:27:57,520 --> 00:27:59,800 Speaker 1: available for bees it was very easy to keep be 470 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,679 Speaker 1: In a lot of parts of North America, they had 471 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,160 Speaker 1: been more focused on controlling wax moths that could really 472 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,639 Speaker 1: destroy the hives. The person who is typically credited for 473 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,840 Speaker 1: developing the modern beehive is the Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, 474 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,600 Speaker 1: who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied and built 475 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:22,000 Speaker 1: on those earlier centuries of improvements. Langstroth based a lot 476 00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: of his work on a hive developed by August Munn 477 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,080 Speaker 1: in eight thirty four, which used hanging frames with space 478 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:32,359 Speaker 1: between each frame and around each edge. Langstroth was also 479 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,199 Speaker 1: inspired by Huber's leaf hive, since it showed that the 480 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:38,720 Speaker 1: frames could be moved without angering the bees too badly, 481 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 1: and Langstroth's view, the ideal hive had a lot of requirements. 482 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,360 Speaker 1: It had to allow the beekeeper to perform every necessary 483 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:51,600 Speaker 1: function of beekeeping, including the collecting honey, without killing or 484 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,200 Speaker 1: injuring any bees. The beekeeper had to be able to 485 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: remove combs from the hive without angering the bees or 486 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,440 Speaker 1: damaging the combs. The hive had to protect the bees 487 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 1: from the elements with adequate ventilation and a removable bottom 488 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:08,400 Speaker 1: to allow for the removal of dead bees or other debris. 489 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,440 Speaker 1: And the hive had to allow the bees to build 490 00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,520 Speaker 1: and just to live without being required to do any 491 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,920 Speaker 1: extra work. And it also had to accommodate colonies of 492 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,360 Speaker 1: different sizes and all of the parts of this hive 493 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: that he had in mind needed to be interchangeable, so 494 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,160 Speaker 1: that a beekeeper could use the same parts with different 495 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,000 Speaker 1: hives as needed. And then, on top of all that 496 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:34,000 Speaker 1: and assorted other details, Langstroth's ideal hive needed to be 497 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:39,000 Speaker 1: combined into one cheap, simple form. Langstroth introduced his hive 498 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,720 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty one. It used hanging frames with a 499 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,920 Speaker 1: one centimeter gap between each frame and between the edge 500 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,719 Speaker 1: of the frame in the interior of the hive itself. 501 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,479 Speaker 1: This amount of space is also described as somewhere between 502 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,120 Speaker 1: a quarter and three eights of an inch. Langstroth called 503 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:59,520 Speaker 1: this small gap the be space. Bees needed to move 504 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: around the hive, but they won't build their combs in 505 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,680 Speaker 1: the space. The hives frames hung in a durable box 506 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,200 Speaker 1: of the lid made by cabinet maker Henry Brooke Am. 507 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:11,880 Speaker 1: The whole thing made it much easier and more efficient 508 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:15,080 Speaker 1: for beekeepers to check on their bees and to harvest 509 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:19,520 Speaker 1: their hives. Langstroth patented his hive in eighteen fifty two, 510 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,000 Speaker 1: and he published a book about it and about beekeeping 511 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:26,120 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty three. The Langstroth hive and similar hives 512 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,000 Speaker 1: that were patterned after. It made bee keeping a lot 513 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:34,120 Speaker 1: more accessible with a much larger possible honey yield, although 514 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,720 Speaker 1: getting started with one did require some initial investment. It 515 00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,360 Speaker 1: also became a lot easier for people to use Western 516 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:45,000 Speaker 1: honey bees as crop pollinators. At the same time, though, 517 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,600 Speaker 1: it became much easier for diseases and mites to spread 518 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:53,680 Speaker 1: through densely populated apiaries. When colony collapse disorders started making 519 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:56,960 Speaker 1: headlines in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousand's, 520 00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:01,360 Speaker 1: people wondered about whether the proliferation of farmed Western honey 521 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,960 Speaker 1: bees was part of the problem. The spread of European 522 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,240 Speaker 1: honey bees also led to more competition with native bees 523 00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:12,720 Speaker 1: for forage. There is some conflicting data about this today. 524 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,600 Speaker 1: Whether domesticated European honey bees are harmful to native bees 525 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 1: can depend on the conditions in a particular area, like 526 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 1: exactly how many domesticated bees there are, how much forage 527 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:26,920 Speaker 1: is available, and exactly what kind of forage it is. 528 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,959 Speaker 1: Another result of the introduction of the Langstroth hive and 529 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: the surge of beekeeping that followed was an expansion of 530 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,520 Speaker 1: bee keeping as a field. People started forming bee keeping 531 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:41,800 Speaker 1: associations they established bee keeping journals and other periodicals, and 532 00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,800 Speaker 1: they started bee keeping guilds. This was a lot different 533 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,920 Speaker 1: from previous eras when most people who wrote about bees 534 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: were naturalists or philosophers or entomologists rather than people who 535 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:57,000 Speaker 1: were specializing just in bees and bee keeping. Although the 536 00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:00,640 Speaker 1: Langstroth hive has become standard bee keeping equip in many 537 00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,239 Speaker 1: parts of the world, be keeping continues to develop. This 538 00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: episode has been about social bees that store honey, but 539 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,200 Speaker 1: starting in the nineteen fifties, people in the United States 540 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:13,720 Speaker 1: and Japan figured out how to domesticate solitary leaf cutting 541 00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,800 Speaker 1: bees to pollinate alfalfa plants. Not all of the developments 542 00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:22,200 Speaker 1: have been positive, though. In nineteen fifty six, Brazilian agricultural 543 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,760 Speaker 1: worker Warwick estevom Kerr and others were looking for a 544 00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:29,080 Speaker 1: breed of bee that might be better suited to the 545 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:33,640 Speaker 1: American tropics than European honey bees were. They imported almost 546 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:37,320 Speaker 1: fifty bee queens from Africa, which he helped a breed 547 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,000 Speaker 1: with European honeybee drones. Their goal was to try to 548 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: create a breed that had a more docile temperament like 549 00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:48,200 Speaker 1: European bees do, but was more physically adapted to life 550 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 1: in the tropical climate like African bees. The details are 551 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:56,080 Speaker 1: not entirely clear, but in nineteen fifty seven, the queen 552 00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,360 Speaker 1: excluders were removed from the hives that Kerr was using, 553 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:02,760 Speaker 1: something that may have been accidental, or it may have 554 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: been someone trying to be helpful. Several of the hives 555 00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:10,720 Speaker 1: swarmed and the bees escaped into the surrounding forests. This 556 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:12,760 Speaker 1: was the origin of what came to be known as 557 00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:16,040 Speaker 1: Africanized honey bees, which tend to be more aggressive and 558 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:20,840 Speaker 1: territorial than their western counterpart. They have since spread northward 559 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,800 Speaker 1: and southward through most of South America, through Central America, 560 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:29,280 Speaker 1: and into the southwestern and southern United States. There are 561 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,120 Speaker 1: so many other things that we could have discussed in 562 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,560 Speaker 1: this episode, like be mythology and religious symbolism, and how 563 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:41,000 Speaker 1: the scientific understanding of the society and evolved, and how 564 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 1: mail order package bees came to be, and other modern 565 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,880 Speaker 1: beehive designs, and various writers through history who thought the 566 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:52,120 Speaker 1: queen bee was really a king, and how gender roles 567 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:56,920 Speaker 1: have varied among beekeepers across global societies. Um. Really, somebody 568 00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,360 Speaker 1: could have a whole entire podcast that was only about 569 00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:04,000 Speaker 1: beekeeping history. It is a lot and if you want 570 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 1: a lot more detail about exactly which cultures were doing 571 00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,000 Speaker 1: what at different types of hives and all of that, 572 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,160 Speaker 1: try to get your hands on a copy of the 573 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:18,680 Speaker 1: World History of Beekeeping and honey hunting. Um you're most 574 00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:22,040 Speaker 1: likely sourced to find. It is in a university library. 575 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:24,720 Speaker 1: It is a textbook. It is more than seven hundred 576 00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 1: pages long, and because it's a textbook, the writing is 577 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:32,440 Speaker 1: very spare in its style. Those are seven hundred plus 578 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:38,080 Speaker 1: pages of detail about bees, about a lot of extraneous aside. 579 00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:42,759 Speaker 1: Uh So that's our brief history of beekeeping. Do you 580 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,799 Speaker 1: have listener mail? I do have listener mail. It's from 581 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:50,239 Speaker 1: Liz uh and Liz says Hi, Holly and Tracy. It 582 00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:52,840 Speaker 1: wouldn't normally right in, but after listening to the poison 583 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,040 Speaker 1: control episode, I thought it might brighten your day a bit. 584 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,920 Speaker 1: To share my positive poison control story. I will pau 585 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:04,120 Speaker 1: us to say, yes, this absolutely brightened my day. Uh. 586 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:07,400 Speaker 1: The letter continues. Although I live in Toronto now, I 587 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: grew up in Ohio and lived in California for seventeen years. 588 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,320 Speaker 1: When my now husband and I were planning our wedding, 589 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,640 Speaker 1: there were some flavors we really liked from our cake baker, 590 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,880 Speaker 1: but that weren't a good idea for some of our guests. Specifically, 591 00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:24,960 Speaker 1: we really liked her guinness cake, banana ganash, and peanut 592 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:28,520 Speaker 1: butter frosting. OMG, that peanut butter frosting was so good 593 00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:30,400 Speaker 1: she gave me a jar of it as a gift, 594 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,080 Speaker 1: possibly to shut me up about how amazing it was. However, 595 00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,640 Speaker 1: we had a guest who was an alcohol recovery, another 596 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,360 Speaker 1: who had a severe peanut allergy, and another with a 597 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,719 Speaker 1: severe banana allergy. So instead of having those flavors as 598 00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: a tear in our cake, we had a separate cake 599 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,160 Speaker 1: made and I had her make it look like Mr. Yuck. 600 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,600 Speaker 1: My mom even sent me some old Mr. Yuck stickers 601 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,279 Speaker 1: to give to our baker because being in California, are 602 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,879 Speaker 1: baker wasn't familiar with him. Technically, it was a groom's cake, 603 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,239 Speaker 1: but I liked it better than our teared k and 604 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:02,719 Speaker 1: they both hold a special place in my heart. I've 605 00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:04,960 Speaker 1: attached to photos so that you can see just how 606 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,759 Speaker 1: amazing our death cake was. Keep saying safe and I 607 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,480 Speaker 1: really appreciate the episodes that aren't pandemic related. I know 608 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:14,719 Speaker 1: you've both mentioned a few times that doing things unrelated 609 00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,160 Speaker 1: feels weird, but honestly, it's really nice to get a 610 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:18,680 Speaker 1: small break from the stress of it. All of this 611 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:21,320 Speaker 1: wishes Liz. Thank you so much, Liz for this email 612 00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:27,359 Speaker 1: and for the picture. UM. I love the idea of 613 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,520 Speaker 1: making the cake that could be toxic to some of 614 00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:34,160 Speaker 1: your wedding guests. UM look like the symbol for Mr Yuck. 615 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:40,279 Speaker 1: It's a tricky thing. And also like, thank you for 616 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:43,799 Speaker 1: trying to make a choice for your wedding that UM 617 00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:47,799 Speaker 1: protected everyone. Having also planned a wedding in which I 618 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,800 Speaker 1: needed to account for various food intolerances among guests, that 619 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:54,200 Speaker 1: can be a tricky thing to make sure that you 620 00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:57,319 Speaker 1: have something that works for everyone. Anyway, thank you so 621 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: much for the email and for the pictures. UM. If 622 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,480 Speaker 1: you would like to write to us about this or 623 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:05,160 Speaker 1: anither podcast or at history podcast at iHeart radio dot com. 624 00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,400 Speaker 1: And then we're also all over social media at missed 625 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:12,640 Speaker 1: in History UH. That is where you can find our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, 626 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,200 Speaker 1: and Instagram, and you can subscribe to our show on 627 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,040 Speaker 1: Apple podcast, the iHeart Radio app and anywhere else you 628 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:25,799 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Stuff you missed in History Class is 629 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:29,000 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from 630 00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,399 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 631 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,520 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.