Apprentice Beekeeper Course

68 Pages·2015·4.16 MB·English

The Washington State Beekeepers Association®
Apprentice
Beekeeper Course

Lesson 2

Supporting Notes
Honey seeker
depicted on 8000
year old cave
painting near
Valencia, Spain

Honey Hunters of Nepal
three basic styles of traditional beehives:

• mud/clay tile hives

• skeps/basket hives

• bee gums/log hives
Most of these traditional beehives
were fixed comb hives.
Ancient Egyptian cylindrical mud hives
bees were born from the tears of Ra;
earliest record of keeping bees in hives was found
near Cairo in a sun temple erected around 2400 BCE
The standing bee-keeper produces smoke, while the one kneeling
removes the combs from the back of the clay hive after breaking the
mud sealing. Wall painting in the tomb of Rekhmire, 18th dynasty.
After a photograph from Abd el Wahab, The apiculture in Egypt, 2008.
Ancient Roman Beehives in Malta
A doorway opens into a passage parallel to the
hole pierced façade. Each hole holds a
cylindrical pottery beehive laid on its side with
a small bee passage hole to the exterior and a
larger one to the passage. This larger interior
hole is blocked with a tile until the beekeeper
wishes to remove the honeycomb.
Modern day bee hives
in Malta.