Generally honey bees are considered a native species in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and introduced elsewhere intentionally by humans – becoming naturalized in ecosystems around the world.
But where did they actually come from?
We decided decided to take a closer look into a bit of the history and find out where bees came from and how they spread and mixed and died out or survived. Click here to read a wonderfully detailed account of the origins and history of honey bees, drilling down on their movements, with thoughts on why they moved when and how, written by Roger Patterson, a beekeeper since 1963 from West Sussex in the United Kingdom. He is also the author of the book “Beekeeping – A Practical Guide” and was the chairman of the Wisborough Green Division of the West Sussex Beekeepers Association for 26 years. The gentleman clearly knows honey bees and honey bee history. He asks us firstly, what are bees anyway? Lets follow his journey.