HeyJaredHoneybee Histories
Exploring the history of beekeeping and honeybees across time and space.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
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- Sep 24, 2026
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- Jul 9, 2026
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Hives and Wild Honey in the Domesday Book (opens the original)
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“After milling, fishing and mining, bee-keeping is the most commonly noticed industry, through the bulk of the references occur in Little Domesday.” - Hull Domesday ProjectThe Domesday Book, compiled in England in 1087 at the order of William the Conqueror, is a much more complex document than it might appear. Yes, it was about taxation and therefore attempted to collect all relevant information about the population so that accurate taxation could be undertaken, but the word relevant here, is im
The Leader of the Hive Part 11 - The Queen and the Drone (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="720" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CB-r!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41712bf8-1c0a-47c7-b0ef-4ef015ec2284_1280x720.png"
The lazy drone in De Universo of Rabanus Maurus (opens the original)
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The drone honeybee has often been called lazy. Aristotle suggested as much, as did his classical successors. Medieval scholars, such as Isidore of Saville, continued to highlight laziness as the chief characteristic of the drone. At no time was anyone certain that the drone was male (or female as some seemed to believe), and there was little interest in understanding its role in the hive. Instead, opinions varied from considering them as inferior honeybees to outright ostracising them as parasit
Thomas Hill - Chapter 8 - The King Bee (opens the original)
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A Profitable Instruction of the perfect ordering of Bees was written by Thomas Hill in 1568. It was the first full length beekeeping manual published in England, in the English language, although well over half its contents was little more than a translation from the continental Pantopolion written by Georg Pictorius five years earlier. This fact shows in chapter 8 of his book, where Hill discusses the leader bee, what we call a Queen. Pictorius and Hill generally followed the words of older wri
Bees and Honey in the Ancient Laws of Britain and Ireland Part 4: Paying Taxes in bees and honey (opens the original)
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In this mini-series on early laws that involve honeybees and beekeepers, we have explored some of the laws enacted to deal with controversy - when a bee harms someone or something or causes damage - as well as what the laws incidentally tell us about beekeeping knowledge and practice in this era. What I have not yet touched on much is the taxable assets that come with being a beekeeper. As honey and wax were prized commodities, there should be little surprise that their products (and the bees th
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