PRE-COLUMBUS BEES

There are  20,000 bee species around the world. Most are solitary bees or social stingless bees however there are 250 bumblebee species and 9 honey bee species. Our industrious Western Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) is native to Europe and Eurasia – having holed up somewhere warm during the last ice age and extended their range as the world warmed.

Largely due to comparatively recent colonisation by European nations and in recognition of the economic advantages the honey bee has now been successfully introduced on every continent except Antarctica.

Before Europeans arrived in the ‘New World’ and took the Honey Bee with them, several of the cultures who already lived there interacted with their indigenous bee species and enjoyed honey and beeswax in their daily lives.

A good example is the Mayan people in (what is now) Guatemala who kept small ‘log hives’ of the American Stingless Bee (Melipona beecheii) a very distant relative of the Western Honey Bee with an altogether more gentle temperment.

Known as colel-kab or “royal lady” in the Mayan language, the American Stingless Bees produced much smaller crops than the invasive species (that now out competes them), but would have been a joy to tend.