Bees of Bible times

[Lburou]

Ran across an interesting article about Bees in the middle east (specifically Israel & the Jordan valley) during Bible times.  The honey mentioned 20 times in the Bible was, by some experts, thought to be the syrup from dates.  There is evidence that honeybees were actually kept in apiaries and remains of the bees reveal they were from Turkey.  Turkey had Anatolian bees, one of the primary bees Brother Adam used to develop the Buckfast bee.

Read about it here: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Unexpected-Israel-Honey-with-a-sting-in-the-tale-399031

[tbonekel]

Interesting. It says one single hive can forage 100 square km? That means they may be going out 8 miles from the hive. That is far!

[Ray]

Thanks, Lburou. That's a very interesting article.
I am browsing through Breeding The Honeybee by Brother Adam now. Reading about all those different strains of Honeybees make me feel like a kid going through the Christmas Catalogs.

Brother Adam claimed some of the European Black Bees had great wing strength and stamina.

[Slowmodem]

Food for thought (pun intended!)

Egypt: The Private Tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu (Tuyu) in the Valley of the Kings

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/yuyat.htm

The discovery was made by James E. Quibell under the direction of non other than Theodore Davis in 1905. Theodore Davis was Howard Carter's predecessor in the Valley of the Kings, and in fact, Howard Carter conducted some work for him.

They had hit the jackpot; one of the most amazing discoveries up until this point in Egypt. Apparently, even though there seems to have been cracks in all the sealed barriers, the tomb was so devoid of atmosphere that silver was still bright and shinny, but within three days of the tombs opening had it had turned black. Some vessels that were uncorked by the archaeologists still contained thick oil, and honey that was almost liquid but still preserved it's scent after thousands of years.

[LazyBkpr]

I read part of that article in a mag, not sure which one, Time maybe?  where they uncovered that apiary and examined the bee carcasses that remained..
   Goes to show you, that beekeeping is an ancient profession. I do wish Honey was as valuable today as it was back then!

[Ray]

I wonder how many ancient strains have gone extinct? The specie Apis Mellifera covered Europe, North Africa and West Asia. Each little micro-climate had it's own strain, that had evolved to SURVIVE there. They might not have been the best economic choice, at the time, but they were suited to their environment. The Italian Race has supplanted a lot of these 'survivor bees'.
I wonder if the Italian Honey bee wasn't an IMPORT into Italy.
The Phoenicians traded with the "Tin Isles" (believed to be England) before Rome even existed. The Roman Empire imported thousands of exotic animals for public entertainment. Why couldn't they have imported a better strain of bee from one of their provinces?

[apisbees]

Interesting. It says one single hive can forage 100 square km? That means they may be going out 8 miles from the hive. That is far!

Not quite that far 100 square km are obtained in a radius of 5.65 Km from the hive, which equals 3.51 miles.