john, where did y'all find any documentation for the 1535 introduction?
and who/what were the sources...my interest in this thread goes back now
a couple of years (deja vu of adrian w. admonishing the rewriting of
history),
stemming from the same skepticism that afflicts us living along the santa
fe/
old spanish mission trail (at the eastern terminus,st.augustine,fla.),
and being somewhat fluent in spanish would love to someday study the
origins of apis mellifera iberica in the americas (any grants
available?)...
so far, have traced this mention in the internet archives...
 
from the "la apicultura en mexico"webpage[english translation]:
 
http://www.netcall.com.mx/abejas/en/history.htm
 
The History of the Beekeeping in Mexico:
 
Journal Ciencia y Desarrollo (CONACYT) Num. 69 (julio, agosto 1986),
Autor: J.M. Labougle, J.A.Zozaya.
 
...The introduction of the European bee in Mixico 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 puropose
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 Mixico, 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.
 
...In conclusion, it can be said that beekeeping activity in Mixico
during
the XVI,XVII and XVIII centuries, was concentrated in the meliponini
beekeeping and it was after the XIX century that introduction and
dispersion of of the common bee breed A. m. mellifera began to transform
this activity, specially in the central region of the country. In fact
modern beekeeping is based on the European bee, specially the breed of
A. m. ligustica, and the beekeeping technology of mobil frames which was
not initiated in Mixico until this century, was wide spread after the
1920's.
 
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