Ancient depiction of a beekeeper at work!

Egyptian honey bees were much more aggressive!

By 5000 BCE, ancient Egypt had hit an agricultural gold mine. The rich soil of the Fertile Crescent, combined with the development of irrigation systems allowed for crops and flowers to flourish. It was during this same time, that the world was introduced to the first form of organized beekeeping. In the Sun Temple of Niuserre, Egyptian beekeepers are shown blowing smoke into hives as they remove honeycombs. Images like these were very common in tombs, as the honey bee was seen as a royal symbol. Sugar did not exist in ancient Egypt, so honey was one of the only available sweeteners. Because of this, honey was very expensive and only available to royalty. Temples kept bees to satisfy their gods and many officials used honey in medicine. During this time, Instead of money, people would often bring honey to temples as a form of payment and respect to the gods. It is also known that honey was most commonly used to treat and seal open wounds, because of its antibacterial properties.In 1978, Dr. Eva Crane discovered hives in the Nile valley. These ancient beehives were cylindrical and made of interwoven twigs and reeds. The gaps were then filled with mud to make the hives more stable. She discovered that the front of these hives had a hole for the honey bees to fly in and out of the hive. And the back had another hole that was meant for smoking the hive It is said that ancient Egyptian bees were much more aggressive than the Italian bees we have today. According to Aristophanes of Byzantium, beekeepers all had shaven heads because the bees reacted aggressively to the smell of the oils in their hair. Hieroglyphs also tell us that beekeepers never used protective gear and they relied solely on smoking the hive for protection.Honey wasn’t the only highly valued thing from the hive. Egyptians also used beeswax very often in their everyday life. It was used as a sealant, for candles , a base for medicines, boat and ship building… the list goes on. It was also a very important ingredient in the mummification process. It was used to plug orifices of the body before it was embalmed and it was mixed with pigments to create funerary masks. After researching ancient Egyptian beekeeping for extensive amounts of time, I have found that not much has changed in beekeeping methods. We still smoke our hives with a very similar method, use honey for the same purposes (minus offering our honey to gods), and harvest at the same times as those in antiquity did. It’s pretty neat that the practice of beekeeping is so longstanding and has largely remained unchanged.Submitted By: Rayne Macphee