Editing Bee (section)

===Beekeeping===

{{main|Beekeeping}}

[[File:Beekeeper.jpg|thumb|right|A commercial beekeeper at work]]

[[File:Western honey bee on a honeycomb.jpg|thumb|Western honey bee on a honeycomb]]

Humans have kept honey bee colonies, commonly in [[beehive|hives]], for millennia.<ref name=Aristotle/> Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago; efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/beekeeping.htm |title=Ancient Egypt: Bee-keeping |website=Reshafim.org.il |date=6 April 2003 |access-date=16 March 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309203227/http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/beekeeping.htm |archive-date=9 March 2016}}</ref> Simple hives and smoke were used.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://beelore.com/2008/02/23/beekeeping-in-ancient-egypt/ |title=Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt |publisher=Bee Lore |access-date=16 March 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322224443/http://beelore.com/2008/02/23/beekeeping-in-ancient-egypt/ |archive-date=22 March 2016|date=23 February 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Bodenheimer1960">{{Cite book |title=Animal and Man in Bible Lands |first=F. S. |last=Bodenheimer |publisher=Brill Archive |year=1960 |page=79}}</ref>

Among Classical Era authors, beekeeping with the use of smoke is described in Aristotle's ''[[History of Animals]]'' Book 9.<ref name=Aristotle>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |author1-link=Aristotle |last2=Thompson |first2=D'Arcy (trans.) |author2-link=D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson |title=The Works of Aristotle |date=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |pages=Book 9, Section 40 |url=https://archive.org/stream/worksofaristotle04arisuoft#page/n443/mode/2up}}</ref> The account mentions that bees die after stinging; that workers remove corpses from the hive, and guard it; castes including workers and non-working [[drone (bee)|drone]]s, but "kings" rather than queens; predators including toads and bee-eaters; and the [[waggle dance]], with the "irresistible suggestion" of {{lang|grc|άροσειονται}} ("{{lang|grc-Latn|aroseiontai}}", it waggles) and {{lang|grc|παρακολουθούσιν}} ("{{lang|grc-Latn|parakolouthousin}}", they watch).<ref name=Whitfield>{{cite journal |last1=Whitfield |first1=B. G. |title=Cambridge University Press and The Classical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Greece & Rome. Virgil and the Bees: A Study in Ancient Apicultural Lor |journal=Greece and Rome |date=October 1956 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=99–117 |jstor=641360|doi=10.1017/S0017383500015126 |s2cid=161643666 }}</ref>{{efn|In D'Arcy Thompson's translation: "At early dawn they make no noise, until some one particular bee makes a buzzing noise two or three times and thereby awakes the rest; hereupon they all fly in a body to work. By and by they return and at first are noisy; ... until at last some one bee flies round about, making a buzzing noise, and apparently calling on the others to go to sleep".<ref name=Aristotle/>}} Beekeeping is described in detail by [[Virgil]] in his ''[[Georgics]]''; it is mentioned in his ''[[Aeneid]]'', and in [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny's]] ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]''.<ref name=Whitfield/>

From the 18th century, European understanding of the colonies and biology of bees allowed the construction of the moveable comb hive so that honey could be harvested without destroying the colony.<ref>Thomas Wildman, ''A Treatise on the Management of Bees'' (London, 1768, 2nd edn 1770).</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harissis |first1=H. V. |last2=Mavrofridis |first2=G. |date=2012 |title=A 17th Century Testimony on the Use of Ceramic Top-bar Hives |url=https://www.academia.edu/1929792 |url-status=live |journal=Bee World |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=56–57 |doi=10.1080/0005772x.2012.11417481 |s2cid=85120138 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019113156/http://www.academia.edu/1929792/A_17th_Century_Testimony_On_The_Use_Of_Ceramic_Top-bar_Hives._2012 |archive-date=19 October 2015}}</ref>