Honeybees are the oldest social insects found in nature. They have lived for about 120 million years. Good nutrition and prevention of disease helped them live this long. The Greeks and Romans were keeping bees over 3000 years ago. They called honey “nectar of the gods” and Greek athletes used honey as a carbohydrate boost.
In Greek mythology, the nymph Melissa cared for her son Zeus while he was being hidden from his father, king of the gods. She looked in beehives to feed Zeus. When his father found out Zeus was being hidden, he turned Melissa into an insect. He took pity on her and turned her into a honeybee instead, so she could make honey for eternity.
Honeybees did not exist in North America, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, until the Europeans settled there. By the mid 1600s, records show that the honeybees spread across the east and west coast of America before the settlers arrived.
