Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation

Introduction

3
Introduction
chapter one INTRODUCTION But are there not more than enough bee books? —Karl von Frisch Von Frisch’s question has haunted me throughout the process of compiling this book. For those interested in how to keep bees, many fine writers already exist. For those who want to read about the joys of beekeeping, better books than this one are already on the market. Even scientists and researchers have found an appreciative general audience. Von Frisch decided to “give the reader the interesting part of the subject, without the ballast of practical instruction.” The result is The Dancing Bees; he won the Nobel Prize for his life’s work in honey bee communication in 1973. Now, I offer another bee book, better defined by what it is not than what it is. Absent are the latest statistics about honey, beeswax, or imports . Nor will this book prepare anyone to don a veil, grab a smoker, and head for the nearest bee tree. I am not a biologist. So why keep reading? The answer is my desire to examine the values associated with being an American, as complicated as that definition can be. No two values have been so highly regarded since colonial days than industry and thrift. No better symbol represents these values than the honey bee. Furthermore, although almost no part of our culture re- 4
Bees in America
mains untouched by honey bees, the field of cultural entomology is still relatively unexplored. Writing as recently as 1987, Charles Hogue lamented of honey bees that “[the bees] cultural importance relative to that of other life forms is not known, because a comparative study has not yet been conducted.”1 Eva Crane has since responded with The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting (1999), which I have relied upon through the course of writing this book. Much is left out, however, for it seems to me that a crucial discussion about the interactions between the beekeepers themselves needs to be added to the literature. I look at how four elements at an intersection called America affect beekeeping in irrevocable ways; those four elements are the honey bee itself, the ideas that Americans had about honey bees, the freedom to develop those ideas, and the beekeepers’ interactions with each other. Of these, it is the last I find so very compelling, for I have a hunch that when beekeepers form a society, they in turn affect the larger society we call America in fascinating ways. Why do we associate industry and thrift with the honey bee? One glance in a hive clarifies why we consider bees to be the most industrious of insects: the bee society is the most perfectly engineered social sphere. Honey bees do not waste an inch of space, honey, or wax in their hives. Their cells are built on a slight upward incline, thus using gravity so that all the honey stays within the cell. Honey bees do not waste time: they have clearly defined tasks that have evolved over millions of years to create a highly structured social system. Furthermore, no matter their location , bees build these hives to protect themselves through the seasons. America is the exact opposite. At first glance, we are anything but organized. We do not have an official religion, political party, language, or even family structure. The Declaration of Independence assures this country that independence will be a characteristic of American culture. But Americans love successes, especially financial ones. And for many people, the traits associated with honey bee society—industry and thrift—were directly associated with the benefits that the New World offered those European immigrants willing to work hard, take advantage of its natural resources, and save their money until they could buy (or take) land. Although the honey bee did not officially arrive in America until the 1620s, its image had been associated with America much earlier. As soon as Columbus became convinced that he had arrived near the original 5
Introduction
Garden of Eden in 1492, North America quickly became known as the New World, and by extension in the European mind-set, a new Canaan, a land of milk and honey. Even though honey bees and cattle were not native to North America, as soon as colonists imagined that America could be a “land of milk and honey,” they set in motion the events to make America so. Behind this determination was...