Podcast – First Report of European Honeybees in the Colonies

First Report of European Honeybees in the Colonies
Today I will talk about the first sightings of the European honeybeen in North America.
From the Book:
Colonial American History Stories – 1215 – 1664

First Report of European Honeybees in the Colonies
Today I will talk about the first sightings of the European honeybeen in North America.
From the Book:
Colonial American History Stories – 1215 – 1664

Transcript:

Greetings, today I will talk about the first sightings of the European honeybeen in North America.
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The earliest evidence of the European Honeybee in America comes from a letter drafted by the Council of the Virginia Company, dispatched to Governor and Council in Virginia. The letter noted that the colonists had ordered seeds, apple trees, pigeons, mastiff dogs and beehives. The shipment of bees arrived in Virginia sometime in March 1622 to serve as pollinators for the European crops. The bees would also produce honey and beeswax, which the native bees did not produce.
Native Bees
North America has over 4,000 species of native bees. These bees serve as valuable pollinators for native plants, including the squash, maize and beans grown by the natives. However, the native bees did not pollinate many of the plants that the Europeans brought with them. Additionally, the native bees do not produce honey or beeswax, valuable products needed by the Europeans. Colonists found no Amerindian words for honey or beeswax.
European Honeybee (Apis mellifera)
Many etymologists believe that the European honeybee evolved in Africa or Asia. Humans took advantage of the honeybee’s honey and wax making ability, making it the first domesticated insect. A symbiotic relationship developed between the bees and humans. Bees produce both honey and wax for humans, humans grow crops that bees love, they help the bees swarm and protect them. The European honeybee, with the help of humans, has spread to every continent in the world except Antarctica.
Pollination of Crops
The Europeans brought many crops with them that needed the honeybee to pollinate them. Honeybees are efficient pollinators of valuable forage crops like white clover and English grasses. The bees also pollinate many of the fruit trees and grains that the colonists needed for food.
Honey
Honey serves the bees as a food for the bees. Worker bees produce honey from nectar gathered by the collecting bees. The workers collect the nectar and process the complex sugars it contains into simpler sugars, creating honey. A hive will produce more honey than it needs to survive, storing it in wax cells produced by the worker bees. The colonists also valued the beeswax.
Beeswax
The colonists needed beeswax to make candles, cosmetics, lubrication, wood sealer and housewives used it to seal food jars. It was also used in medicine. The beeswax formed a valuable commodity for the colonists, as it was in great demand in England. About one hundred years after the bees were imported; the colonists exported over 300,000 pounds of beeswax per year of beeswax.
Spread Across the Continent
The bees spread, both by natural means and with human help, across the North American continent. The bees preceded the humans into the interior of the land, in many cases taking some of the plants needed by the colonists with them. White clover and bluegrass, both valuable forage crops, spread into Kentucky with the aid of the bee’s pollination. Colonists moving into Kentucky found bees, clover and bluegrass to serve their needs. It would take 230 years and human help for bees to make over the Rocky Mountains it to the west coast.

The episode is based upon my book, Colonial American History Stories – 1215 – 1664, available on the web site, http://www.mossyfeetbooks.com. The book is the first book in the 6 volume Timeline of United States History Series . Discover some of the famous and almost forgotten historic stories of America. The story begins with the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 and the beginnings of the concept of limited government and ends, for now, with the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. The articles in the book have much more detail as well as articles not included in this podcast series.