Adrian Wenner wrote:
 
> At 09:11 PM 99/02/19 -0800, Steven wrote:
> >I am looking for information about the origin of bees in the americas,
>
>    In May of 1993, Robbin Thorp and I published an article in BEE CULTURE
> ("The honey bees of Santa Cruz Island."  121 (5):272-275).  We gave some
> background about honey bee introductions in that article.
>
>    Apparently, the first United States honey bees arrived in the Virginia
> Colony in 1622 (a bit of research confirmed by Eva Crane in her volume,
> ARCHEOLOGY OF BEEKEEPING).  By 1654 they had reached New England.  Lee
> Watkins documented the arrival of bees in California, the first in 1853.
> Walter Sheppard published quite a complete account
 
We (actually, Steve Buchmann) came up with about 1535 for the hbees landing in
Monterrey, Mexico. I wish someone fluent in Spanish would undertake a search of
the archives in Spain and Catholic church records in the Americas to sort this
out. The Catholics have always been heavily into beeswax for candles, and
records of many of the missions in Mexico, Arizona, N.Mexico, and California
still exist, as well as shipping manifests in Spain. All that is needed is
someone who speaks the language, and has an eye for beekeeping terms.
   - John, Tucson
-----------------------------------------------------------
John F. Edwards
Biological Lab. Technician
"Feral Bee Tracker and AHB Identifier"
Carl Hayden Bee Research Center
2000 E. Allen Road
Tucson, Arizona 85719
 
Office: 520-670-6380, ext.110
Fax:    520-670-6493
 
Geog. location:
32.27495 N
110.9402 W
 
Lab webpages:
http://198.22.133.109/
http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/index.html
http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/jephotos.htm