Beekeeping was founded on one of the most primal emotions of early human beings - lust. It was their lust for adventure, for sweetness and for survival that drove the origins of beekeeping. There is little doubt that early encounters of hunter/gatherer cultures with beehives in the African forest, or on the savannah, or high in the mountain cliffs were very, very painful.
Once humans discovered how to control fire, they leveraged it to their advantage on many levels - one of which was to use the smoke to control the bees, to make them docile. Was it a bush fire, or a eureka moment of a particular individual, that presented this discovery? We will probably never know. However, smoke creates a rush of the bees to fill their stomachs with honey, possibly an evolutionary advantageous action in preparation of abandoning the hive in the face of an upcoming forest fire. If a fire was approaching your home, wouldn't you take your most prized possession and prepare to leave? Thereafter, the path was clear to use smoke to rob the bees of their honey, and ancient cave drawings depict this nicely.
In September 2007, it was reported that 30 intact beehives dating back to the mid-10th century and the early ninth century BCE were found by archaeologists in the ruins of Rehov, Israel. This ancient King Solomon dynasty town is located in the Jordan Valley, which is a part of the great river valley running from Africa to Turkey. The beehives, made of straw and unbaked clay, were found in orderly rows of 100 hives, demonstrating evidence of an advanced honey-producing beekeeping (apiculture) industry over 3000 years ago in the city, thought to have a population of about 2000 Israelite and Canaanite residents at the time.
It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees. This is one of the main reasons why contract pollination has overtaken the role of honey production for beekeepers in many nations. Given this, today, beekeepers are focused on how to protect their hives from Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) infection and other bee viruses that threaten the world's bee population.
