{"id":6971,"date":"2022-01-02T15:01:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-02T20:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beekeepingfornewbies.com\/?p=6971"},"modified":"2022-09-11T17:29:51","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T21:29:51","slug":"what-is-beekeeping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beekeepingfornewbies.com\/what-is-beekeeping\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Beekeeping? (A Primer For Beginners)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated on September 11th, 2022<\/p>\n

Honey bees are very beneficial insects. In addition to their role as pollinators, they provide us with various natural products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout history, humans made the honey bee one of the most domesticated insects in the world to capture its products and services. This domestication is what we call beekeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beekeeping is the ancient agricultural practice of managing honey bees in enclosed structures called beehives. Beekeepers may obtain crop pollination services from these bees and harvest their honey, beeswax, pollen, and other products. Beekeeping can be a hobby or commercial in nature.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honey bees have been kept since antiquity for their ability to make honey and wax and their value as pollinators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we provide an overview of what is beekeeping and some of its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Beekeeping Called?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beekeeping is technically called \u201capiculture.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beekeeping Is Agriculture<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The word “apiculture” is derived from the Latin “apis,” meaning “bee” and “cultura” for “growing (similar to “agriculture”). Thus, apiculture is considered a form of agriculture or farming, where the honey bees are considered livestock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Latin derivations, beekeepers are “apiarists,” and their yards full of beehives are “apiaries.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Beekeeping is also considered farming in standard usage and by various governmental agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In beekeeping, bees raise brood and produce hive products such as honey in manufactured enclosures called “beehives.”  From beehives, beekeepers harvest apicultural products for human consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, honey bees play a significant role in agriculture as pollinators of crops such as almonds, apples, blueberries, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See our article Is Beekeeping Agriculture?<\/a> for more details on how keeping bees is considered farming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

About Honey Bees<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The honey bee (Apis mellifera<\/em>) is an insect in the family Apidae<\/em>, order Hymenoptera<\/em>. It is native to Eurasia and Africa but has been introduced worldwide. There are two subspecies: the Western honey bee (A.mellifera mellifera<\/em>), which lives in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia; and the Eastern honey bee (A. m. scutellata<\/em>), which lives in parts of Africa and South-East Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The honey bee is a social insect, with colonies consisting of multiple generations of queens, female workers, and male drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worker bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers. They use these items to produce honey, beebread (primarily pollen), and royal jelly as additional foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While foraging, honey bees pollinate plants by carrying pollen between flowers on their bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some other insects also make honey, honey bees hoard excess honey during times of abundant nectar flow. In contrast, bumblebees do not store honey, instead of using it immediately for their current diet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bees’ instinctive hoarding of honey for later consumption provides “surplus” honey available for harvesting by beekeepers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hive Products<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In addition to honey<\/strong>, honey bees provide other products for human consumption and use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n