Eco Bee Box Advertisement: Sustainable At Home Business

Eco Bee Box. Bees for Fun and Profit: Sustainable At Home Business. 2018, Image.

Some novices go into backyard beekeeping for honey production with the idea of turning their hobby into a business. Taken by this thought of creating a backyard business, this ad captures immediate attention. Bees for Fun and Profit: Sustainable At Home Business. This advertisement was taken from a bee box manufacturer’s website (Eco Bee Boxes). This advertisement uses a mixture of elements to create a feeling of excitement and joy at the idea of creating your own business using their bee boxes.

By looking at the image, of a pleased woman holding a jar of honey in one hand and a jar of beeswax in the other of which she apparently cultivated from the bee box to her side, you’d think creating an at home business beekeeping would not only be fun, but profitable as well. Boldly in black lettered font at the top, it states: “Bees for Fun and Profit.” Subtly below, but still making a statement in contrast to the black text above, in white it states: “Egyptians Called it a ‘Gift from the Gods’”. Not only are the bold statements suggesting beekeeping for honey production is fun, but you can easily turn your hobby into a profitable business because according to the Egyptians, honey is valuable. The banner in which the fonts are printed over is a golden hue of yellow, another symbolic trait of honey and wealth. The bee box, which is not subtly placed at the woman’s side, is the symbol of honey production as well as profit. Without Eco Bee Boxes, this woman wouldn’t have been able to cultivate her honey and beeswax.

Subtly placed, there is a beehive image burnt into the wooden bee box, almost suggesting this bee box is the new way of bees making a hive. On the woman’s beekeeping suit, there is another beehive embroidered into the fabric, suggesting she’s the master of the hive. The overall colors of the advertisement are organic in nature. Not bold or loud, but warm and comforting with golden yellow hues as if taken on a calm, summer morning before the bees have come out to work.

Over all, the advertisement suggest tranquility, ease of profit making, and even communion with the bees to turn your backyard hobby into a profitable business. With the help of the proper equipment and a little knowledge, one can profit from the gift of the gods and have fun at the same time.

Work Cited

Eco Bee Box. Bees for Fun and Profit: Sustainable At Home Business. 2018, Image, ecobeebox.com/

History of Beekeeping

Much like today, honey was a rich commodity for our ancestors, providing them with food, used for medicinal purposes, and for tools, such as waterproofing pottery. Recent archaeological evidence shows mankind has been exploiting honeybees for nearly 9,000 years in what is now Turkey. Evidence such as cave paintings, pottery, and artifacts coated in beeswax all tell the story of mankind and their first success at apiculture. Helen Briggs, a writer for BBC News, stated:

International scientists examined over 6,000 pottery vessels to piece together a map of the honeybee at a time when the world had just emerged from the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago.  Lifestyles were shifting from hunter-gathering towards growing the first crops and keeping animals for meat, milk and skin. (par. 8-9)

Eva Crane, a renowned apiculturist, wrote in her book Honey: Past, Present, and Future, honey bees have evolved to produce honey in colonies long before mankind even existed. Crane continues by stating honey bees in the Old World have been producing honey for 10 or 20 million years. However, Crane states early man didn’t keep the bees in manmade hives, but bee hunted to cultivate the honey and the wax. Much like primates who shove a long stick into a hive, wiggle it around inside, and pull it out covered in honey, our early ancestors did the same. However, it was only a matter of time before man was able to bee-keep and not simply bee hunt. (142)

Crane states the earliest evidence we have of beekeeping for honey production dates back to Ancient Egypt where stone carvings depict horizontal manmade hives around 2400 BCE. Crane explains Ethiopians in the High Simien mountains are still making bee hives out of mud, dung, and straw, utilizing the materials around them to keep bees for honey production. She states the illustrations from Ancient Egypt are similar in resemblance to those found in Ethiopia. (142)

Shanta Barley wrote in her article, Biblical bee-keepers picked the best bees, researchers have found evidence of beehives in ancient Near East in modern day Tel Rehov, Israel. The picture below shows the uncovered clay tubes. Barley states, “Each one has a hole on one side which would have served as a “bee flap” and a lid on the opposite side to give bee-keepers access to the honeycomb” (par. 3).

Ancient Beehive. Bees used these holes to enter and exit from the ancient clay hives at Tel Rehov, Israel.

(Image: Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Mark Grossmann, an apiculturist, explains the mud, clay, and dung hives our ancient ancestors once used are still used today, but with a little better technique (as pictured below). He states, “Throughout the [Old World], unbaked mud, straw, clay and dung were shaped into long tubes—something like the modern baked clay tile” (par. 2). Inside the tubes, bees were able to build combs and fill them with honey. Once the beekeeper was ready to harvest the honey, they would smoke one end of the tube, driving the bees out the other end. Then, they would harvest the honey, just as we do today.

Mud and Clay Tube Beehives, 2014.

(Image: Mark Grossmann)

Some of our techniques for harvesting honey have evolved, but our ancestors were the ones to bee-keep with intent to harvest the byproducts of socialized bees. Today, just as in the past, honey is still a commodity people seek out for food, medicinal purposes, and tools.

Work Cited

“Ancient Beehive.” 2010. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. New Scientist, newscientist.com/article/dn19013-biblical-bee-keepers-picked-the-best-bees/

Barley, Shanta. “Biblical bee-keepers picked the best bees.” New Scientist, 07 June 2010, www.newscientist.com/article/dn19013-biblical-bee-keepers-picked-the-best-bees/

Briggs, Helen. “Prehistoric farmers were first beekeepers.” BBC News, 11 Nov. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34749846

Crane, Eva. “Honey: Past, Present, and Future.” American Bee Journal, vol. 117, no. 3, 1977, pp. 142-145.

Grossmann, Mark. “Hive: What is a “Mud and Clay Tube Beehives”?” Grossmann’s Hives. 11 Sept. 2014. grossmannsbees.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/hive-what-is-a-mud-and-clay-bee-hive/

Grossmann, Mark. “Mud and Clay Beehives.” Grossmann’s Hives. 11 Sept. 2014. grossmannsbees.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1040978.jpg