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    Forty-Two Years of Bee-Keeping in New Zealand 1874-1916 - Some Reminiscences
    Forty-Two Years of Bee-Keeping in New Zealand 1874-1916 - Some Reminiscences
    Forty-Two Years of Bee-Keeping in New Zealand 1874-1916 - Some Reminiscences
    Ebook145 pages1 hour

    Forty-Two Years of Bee-Keeping in New Zealand 1874-1916 - Some Reminiscences

    By I. Hopkins

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    This volume contains a detailed account of bee-keeping in New Zealand between 1874-1916. Based on the author's own experiences as a life-long bee-keeper, this book presents a fascinating account of the birth and development of the practice in the country. "Forty-Two Years of Bee-Keeping in New Zealand 1874-1916" is highly recommended for those with an interest in the history of bee-keeping and is not to be missed by collectors. Contents include: "The Importation of the Hive Bee into New Zealand", "A Few Simple Rules for New Zealand Beekeepers", "To Take Honey", "Primitive Beekeeping", "The First New Zealand Bee Manual", "The Honey Market in Those Days", "Beekeeping in Other Countries", "The First Stage of Progress in New Zealand", etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on Bee-keeping. First published in 1916.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHome Farm Books
    Release dateSep 21, 2017
    ISBN9781473342606
    Forty-Two Years of Bee-Keeping in New Zealand 1874-1916 - Some Reminiscences

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      Forty-Two Years of Bee-Keeping in New Zealand 1874-1916 - Some Reminiscences - I. Hopkins

      Bee Keeping

      Beekeeping (or apiculture, from Latin: apis ‘bee’) is quite simply, the maintenance of honey bee colonies. A beekeeper (or apiarist) keeps bees in order to collect their honey and other products that the hive produces (including beeswax, propolis, pollen, and royal jelly), to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary or ‘bee yard.’ Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago, and efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago. Simple hives and smoke were used and honey was stored in jars, some of which were found in the tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun.

      The beginnings of ‘bee domestication’ are uncertain, however early evidence points to the use of hives made of hollow logs, wooden boxes, pottery vessels and woven straw baskets. On the walls of the sun temple of Nyuserre Ini (an ancient Egyptian Pharo) from the Fifth Dynasty, 2422 BCE, workers are depicted blowing smoke into hives as they are removing honeycombs. Inscriptions detailing the production of honey have also been found on the tomb of Pabasa (an Egyptian nobleman) from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (c. 650 BCE), depicting pouring honey in jars and cylindrical hives. Amazingly though, archaeological finds relating to beekeeping have been discovered at Rehov, a Bronze and Iron Age archaeological site in the Jordan Valley, Israel. Thirty intact hives, made of straw and unbaked clay, were discovered in the ruins of the city, dating from about 900 BCE. The hives were found in orderly rows, three high, in a manner that could have accommodated around 100 hives, held more than 1 million bees and had a potential annual yield of 500 kilograms of honey and 70 kilograms of beeswax!

      It wasn't until the eighteenth century that 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 entire colony. In this ‘Enlightenment’ period, natural philosophers undertook the scientific study of bee colonies and began to understand the complex and hidden world of bee biology. Preeminent among these scientific pioneers were Swammerdam, René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, Charles Bonnet and the Swiss scientist Francois Huber. Huber was the most prolific however, regarded as ‘the father of modern bee science’, and was the first man to prove by observation and experiment that queens are physically inseminated by drones outside the confines of hives, usually a great distance away. Huber built improved glass-walled observation hives and sectional hives that could be opened like the leaves of a book. This allowed inspecting individual wax combs and greatly improved direct observation of hive activity. Although he went blind before he was twenty, Huber employed a secretary, Francois Burnens, to make daily observations, conduct careful experiments, and keep accurate notes for more than twenty years.

      Early forms of honey collecting entailed the destruction of the entire colony when the honey was harvested. The wild hive was crudely broken into, using smoke to suppress the bees, the honeycombs were torn out and smashed up—along with the eggs, larvae and honey they contained. The liquid honey from the destroyed brood nest was strained through a sieve or basket. This was destructive and unhygienic, but for hunter-gatherer societies this did not matter, since the honey was generally consumed immediately and there were always more wild colonies to exploit. It took until the nineteenth century to revolutionise this aspect of beekeeping practice – when the American, Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth made practical use of Huber's earlier discovery that there was a specific spatial measurement between the wax combs, later called the bee space, which bees do not block with wax, but keep as a free passage. Having determined this bee space (between 5 and 8 mm, or 1/4 to 3/8"), Langstroth then designed a series of wooden frames within a rectangular hive box, carefully maintaining the correct space between successive frames, and found that the bees would build parallel honeycombs in the box without bonding them to each other or to the hive walls.

      Modern day beekeeping has remained relatively unchanged. In terms of keeping practice, the first line of protection and care – is always sound knowledge. Beekeepers are usually well versed in the relevant information; biology, behaviour, nutrition - and also wear protective clothing. Novice beekeepers commonly wear gloves and a hooded suit or hat and veil, but some experienced beekeepers elect not to use gloves because they inhibit delicate manipulations. The face and neck are the most important areas to protect (as a sting here will lead to much more pain and swelling than a sting elsewhere), so most beekeepers wear at least a veil. As an interesting note, protective clothing is generally white, and of a smooth material. This is because it provides the maximum differentiation from the colony's natural predators (bears, skunks, etc.), which tend to be dark-coloured and furry. Most beekeepers also use a ‘smoker’—a device designed to generate smoke from the incomplete combustion of various fuels. Smoke calms bees; it initiates a feeding response in anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire. Smoke also masks alarm pheromones released by guard bees or when bees are squashed in an inspection. The ensuing confusion creates an opportunity for the beekeeper to open the hive and work without triggering a defensive reaction.

      Such practices are generally associated with rural locations, and traditional farming endeavours. However, more recently, urban beekeeping has emerged; an attempt to revert to a less industrialized way of obtaining honey by utilizing small-scale colonies that pollinate urban gardens. Urban apiculture has undergone a renaissance in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and urban beekeeping is seen by many as a growing trend; it has recently been legalized in cities where it was previously banned. Paris, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Melbourne and Washington DC are among beekeeping cities. Some have found that ‘city bees’ are actually healthier than ‘rural bees’ because there are fewer pesticides and greater biodiversity. Urban bees may fail to find forage, however, and homeowners can use their landscapes to help feed local bee populations by planting flowers that provide nectar and pollen. As is evident from this short introduction, ‘Bee-Keeping’ is an incredibly ancient practice. We hope the current reader is inspired by this book to be more ‘bee aware’, whether that’s via planting appropriate flowers, keeping bees or merely appreciating! Enjoy.

      To my Bee-keeping Friends in New Zealand.

      At the suggestion of several old beekeeping friends I promised some time ago to write a brief history of the progress of Modern Commercial Beekeeping in New Zealand, from its introduction into the country down to the present time. This, with the consent of the Editor of the N.Z. Farmer, was published in a series of articles last year in the bee columns of that journal. Having records by me, and my memory serving me well, enabled me to jot down fairly complete particulars of such events as now seem to me to have had the greatest influence in shaping the course of our beekeeping industry.

      Seeing that I have taken a leading part in all movements herein recorded, the frequent use of the personal I was unavoidable. To have given the names of all connected with the pioneering of the industry would have made too formidable a list, so I have only mentioned those that could not well be avoided.

      While the Reminiscences were being published I had ample proof of the interest taken in them, and I think any of the younger generation of our beekeepers who have read them will better appreciate the favourable conditions under which they now work, as compared with the difficulties the pioneers of the industry had to contend against.

      Regarding the present condition and the future prospects of Commercial Beekeeping in New Zealand. Having subscribed to most bee journals published in the English language during the past 38 years, I have kept abreast of all movements in the beekeeping world during that time, and am therefore able to form a fairly correct estimate of the status of our beekeeping as compared with that in other countries, and I have no hesitation in saying that we lead the world in beekeeping. I am aware it is a big claim to make, but when we consider that no other country has such an effective Apiaries Act

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