WILLIAMSBURG — The museum shops at Jamestown Settlement will celebrate World Bee Day on Saturday, May 18 with honeybee-related activities and vendor presentations.
The event honors the 402nd anniversary of the first recorded honeybees in North America. The European honeybees most familiar to people today are not native to the continent, first landing in Virginia in 1622 when the Virginia Company of London sent a ship carrying the first beehives.
The honeybees were part of a shipment that also carried seeds and fruit trees, as well as pigeons and rabbits. Reports say there were also peacocks and mastiffs. By 1648 George Pelton, a resident of the colony, had a prosperous apiary, making 30 pounds a year of profit from keeping bees.
The celebration of World Bee Day marks a milestone in environmental advocacy and education with the signing of Virginia House Bill 517 on March 8, legislation that officially designates the European Honeybee as the Commonwealth of Virginia’s official state pollinator. The bill, championed by Del. Patrick Hope of Arlington County’s 1st District, received bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
“What [Charles C. Mann] says is if honeybees hadn’t been brought over then the plants that Europeans brought wouldn’t have survived because they would have needed that pollination,” said Bly Straube, a senior curator at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, citing Mann’s book “1493.” This included foods such as apples, peaches, and watermelons.
Straube said the book also notes that honeybees are non-discriminatory pollinators. This meant there was a significant impact on vegetation as a result of the honeybee being brought over for the sake of wax and honey
“It was a sign to the indigenous peoples in America that when they saw bees, there was some sadness, because they knew their lives were going to change,” Straube explained. “Bees became associated with development and the encroachment of the Europeans.”
According to USGS, honeybees now help pollinate many crops in the U.S., like fruits and nuts. In a single year, one honeybee colony can gather about 40 pounds of pollen and 265 pounds of nectar. Honeybees increase the nation’s crop values each year by more than $15 billion.
In recent years the honeybee population has been declining due to many factors, creating concern about the future security of pollination services in the United States. The USGS also notes that honeybees are also significant competitors of native bees and should not be introduced in conservation areas, parks, or areas where the desire is to foster the conservation of native plants and native bees.
Throughout the day on Saturday, museum shops will feature vendor demonstrations, samplings and tastings by:
- Bodhi Bee Farms, Williamsburg
- Williamsburg Beekeeper Association
- Silver Hand Meadery, Williamsburg
- Edgewood Apiaries and Farm, Bremo Bluff
- Rangeley Soaps and Lotions, Mechanicsville
- Savannah Bee Company, Savannah, Georgia
While Jamestown Settlement does not have a hive on property it does have a virtual hive.
Jamestown Settlement’s main museum shop is open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and museum admission is not required to visit it. Guests with museum admission also can access the honeybee pop-up shop in the Great Hall at Jamestown Settlement, open daily, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
For more information, visit the official website.
