Pre-Columbian Bees in the Americas
While it is true that "beekeeping" has been carried out in the
Americas for thousands of years, these were not the honey bee that we
use, but bees from an entirely different genus (Melipona, Trigona).
De Landa (1566) describes the stingless bees cultivated by the Maya
and the wax they produce. Redfield and Villa Rojas (1934) describe
bee-keeping and candlemaking in more detail. There is little doubt
that candles provided a major source of lighting in pre-Columbian
times.
de Landa, Diego. Yucatan: Before and After Conquest. Dover
Publications, Inc., 1978 (reprint and translation of 1566). Journal
Ciencia y Desarrollo (CONACYT) Num. 69 (julio, agosto 1986), Autor:
J.M. Labougle, J.A.Zozaya.
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The History of the Beekeeping in Mexico
In the new world the different species known as Apis was non-existent
which is why the established cultures used another group of bees: The
Meliponi or bees without sting. From this the mesamerican cultures
were able to cultivate many varieties from the genus Trigona and
Melipona -- one especially important a species called Melipona
Beecheii Bennett, that is still in use in Yucatan and which in Mayan
is called Xuna'an-Kab, Kolel'Kab o Po'ol-Kab.
The Trajectory of the Meliponi culture in Yucatan is representative
in the rest of the mesamerican area, where reached a high degree of
complexity. It is thought that in the beginning the Mayan carried out
the exploitation of the Meliponi by stealing honey from wild
colonies. Later, they chopped down the trunks where the broodnests
were located and relocated them under the eaves of their house and
took care of them until the time of harvest. The protection of the
natural honey nest taught the Meliponi beekeeper about the need for
bee forge resources and their vulnerability to natural factors, such
as rain and wind. In this way they learnt to protect their hives
inside of huts which consisted of the functional equivalent of a
modern apiary and put the trunks in a specially designed frame. This
method was as efficient as the method with A. mellifera in Europe
during the XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries, specially in terms of
production and reproduction of the colonies, mechanisms to reduce
swarming, etc. In the General Natural History of the Indies,
described by Fernandez de Oviedo, the beekeeping activity and the
intense care of the bees the Mayan had, during colonial days, it is
evident as well, that the Meliponi beekeeping was more extensive in
that time than a beekeeper in any European country.
Honey was the principal resource used by the Mayans for the
manufacture of "balche", a drink which included honey, balche
cuttings (lonchocarpus longistylus pittier) and water. This beverage
was used in religious festivities. The oldest document on beekeeping
in the Peninsula is the Troano codice, which mentions the religious
festivities of beekeepers would celebrate festivities principally to
the God Ah-Muzencab to assure a good nectar flow.
The honey, aside from being tribute that the Mayan peasants pay to
the "halachuinics", was the objet of intense commerce carried out
from Tabasco by sea to Honduras (Ula) and Nicaragua as well as the
Mexican empire. In exchange for the honey and wax, the Mayans
probably received cacao seeds and precious stones.
With the arrival of the Spanish in America, could be thought that the
common European bee (A.mellifera) was also introduced nevertheless,
the metropolis always consider the sale of honey and wax, as a royal
and exclusive monopoly of Spain. But due to the religious activities,
there was a strong necessity to count on a larger wax supply.
Impossible to cover from Spain. For this reason, the Spanish demanded
to the cast of "halch-uinics" who occupied the Yucatan Peninsula to
give them wax as a tribute. With the introduction of the sugar cane
and the development of large sugar cane plantations in the New Spain
Central Region, honey became a product of secondary importance. The
necessity of using it as a sweetener was reduced and it was only used
to make "balche".
The extensions of the Meliponi culture in Yucatan, can be measured by
the first tribute list that Spanish demanded in 1549: Out of 173
towns in Yucatan, only 5.8% did not pay with honey and wax. In total
the list covered 2, 438 arrobas (approximately 29,300 kgs.) of wax
and 276 arrobas (around 3,300 kgs.) of honey, which in terms of the
existing population in the state of Yucatan, was equivalent to 1
arroba (12 kgs.) of wax for each twenty persons and 1 arroba of honey
per each 295 persons. The intensity of the activity can be
appreciated if you considered that one apiary hut usually counted on
between 100 and 200 hive-logs.
The wax forage by the Spanish was traded through the ports of Sisal
in Yucatan and Campeche and from the port of Campeche to Veracruz and
others from the Spanish empire. For this reason, to the M. Beecheii
wax, which actually is a serum (a mixture of wax and propolis) it was
known as Campeche wax. In general, the tributary economic structure
and the explotation system of the Meliponi beekeeping was maintained
during the entire colonization, that is why the Spanish never
introduced the common European bee to the Maya regions, specially the
Peninsula of Yucatan.
The European Bee in Mexico
The introduction of the European bee in Mexico was not direct. The
evidence indicates that the raised of the European bees known as A.
mellifera, were introduced first in Florida towards the end of the
XVII century when this Peninsula was a Spanish possession, for the
purpose of finding some economic benefit, because the economic
contribution of that place to the Empire was minimum or non-existent.
The initial experiments with bees in Florida was unsuccessful; in the
middle of the XVIII century on the Peninsula could only be found wild
population of common bees. Nevertheless in 1764 colonies of A.
mellifera from Florida were taken to Cuba. This activity was of great
importance and it had a fast dispersion on the island.
It is very likely that this was when the European bee A. mellifera
was introduced to New Spain from Cuba, but there is not a well known
document that could give the date of its incorporation. F.J.
Clavijero in his document of the History of Mexico, writes about the
presence of this bee in the country, and some indirect evidences
suggest that this introduction took place by the end of the 1760's or
at the beginning of the 1770's and only on the central region.
The arrival of the European bee in Mexico, did not imply its
introduction to Yucatan, as a matter of fact in 1821, this kind of
bee was not known in the region, because the wax commercialized
between this Peninsula and the rest of the country, continued being
the "Campeche wax" or the propolis cerum.The principal reason for
this was probably resistance from the Meliponi culture beekeepers to
work with stinging bees, besides there was not an economic need,
because Meliponi beekeeping was very developed and totally covered
the wax and honey demand. On the other hand, the Spanish concentrated
their efforts on the development of henequen plantations and on the
suppression of many serious social conflicts caused by the land
concentration in land-grounds, dedicated to henequen production.
http://netcall.com.mx/abejas/en/history.htm
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Over 25,000 species of bees have been identified in the world, with
perhaps as many as 40,000 species yet to be identified. In the
continental United States scientists have found approximately 3,500
species of bees. The desert regions of northern Mexico and southern
Arizona have the richest diversity of bees found anywhere in the
world. Although there is no exact count, a bee scientist at the USDA
Carl Hayden Bee Research Center says there are between 1,000 and
1,200 species of bees within 100 miles of Tucson!
You may wonder how this can be true. It turns out that not all bees
are social bees that live in large families like bumble bees and
honey bees. Most are less well-known bees called solitary bees, for
example carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, alkali bees, digger bees or
sweat bees. Female solitary bees build their own nests and provide
food for only their own offspring. All bees collect pollen and
nectar, and many of the solitary species are essential because they
pollinate plants ignored by honey bees.
What we call honey bees are represented by eight to 10 species in the
genus Apis, a name from which comes the word for beekeeping
(apiculture) and the word for a bee yard (apiary). The species of
honey bee commonly found today in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and
the Americas is Apis mellifera, which means honey carrier. This name
is not technically correct as the bees carry nectar from flowers
which they then use to produce honey back in the hive. Only when the
bees are moving to a new nest (swarming) do they carry honey.
There are 24 races of Apis mellifera. The races have different
physical and behavioral characteristics such as body color, wing
length, and susceptibility to disease. But, since they are all of the
same species, bees from one race can mate with bees from another
race, creating even more variation within the honey bee universe.
Caucasian bees ( A. mellifera caucasica) are known to be extremely
docile, whereas the black or German bees ( A. mellifera mellifera)
are known to overwinter well in severe climates. The African group of
bees includes not only the largest number of geographic races (12),
but also some of the best known, such as the notorious A. mellifera
scutellata. It was a few queens of this highly defensive race that
were brought into Brazil in 1957 and started the bees we now know as
"Africanized honey bees."
The true honey bee was not native to the Americas. Prior to Columbus,
people in Central and South America collected honey from bees known
as "stingless bees." Although stingless bees do actually lack a
stinger, they are not completely defenseless. They can inflict
painful bites with their mandibles. They also do not produce honey in
the same quantity as A. mellifera.
http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/ahb/inf1.html
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