Beekeeping

A beekeeping establishment is called an apiary. Each colony within an apiary lives in its own hive. Formerly, bees were kept in cone-shaped hives, called skeps. To remove the honey, the whole colony had to be destroyed. A modern hive is generally a tightly closed box with a small entrance for the bees. The box contains vertical frames, any one of which can be taken out without disturbing the others.

The frames have an artificial wax foundation on which the bees build honeycombs. Brood cells are built on frames in the lower part of the hive, the brood chamber. In the upper section, called the super, the bees store their honey. A screen prevents the queen bee from entering the super to lay eggs, but allows the workers, who are smaller, to enter and fill the cells with honey. This upper section provides the honey for commercial use; the combs, when cleared of honey, provide beeswax. A machine called a honey extractor is used to remove honey from the combs.

Before disturbing a hive, a beekeeper blows smoke into it with a device called a smoker. The smoke quiets the worker bees and makes them much less likely to sting. The bees are then removed from the supers by a device similar to a vacuum cleaner.

Honey varies in taste and color according to the flowers from which the nectar is gathered. White clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, and fruit trees are good sources of nectar, and beehives are often kept in orchards.

Beekeeping is an ancient business. Until sugar became generally available in the 16th century, honey was the principal sweetener used in foods. Various places have been known in history for the production of honey. In the Bible, the Promised Land of the Israelites was called "a land flowing with milk and honey." Ancient Greece and Sicily were also important centers of honey production.