MEANING OF BEE: According to the FAO, bees raise agricultural yields by 153 billion euros every year worldwide. According to scientific research from Great Britain, a bee colony contributes to the wider social community (through pollination of cultivated and uncultivated plants, as well as bee products) about 1,200 euros per year, and beekeepers receive a maximum of 1.5–3.0% of that, due to climate change and far less. Bee products are biologically valuable food with a biological effect on the human body. Today, bee products are almost the only food that comes to our tables without any preservatives and additives, the way bees collected it from nature, in its original form.
HISTORY: On November 17th. 2017, following three years of efforts at the international level, the United Nations Economic and Financial Committee adopted a resolution proclaiming May 20th. as World Bee Day, which was proposed by Slovenia. On December 20 th. 2017, the resolution (A/RES/72/211) was unanimously approved by the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It was supported by all UN states, while 115 countries also acted as co-sponsors. The date was chosen since it is on this day when Slovenian Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born in 1734. Moreover, the month of May is the best time for the full activity of bees in the northern and southern hemispheres. Anton Janša was born into a peasant family on May 20, 1734, in the village of Breznica in the Upper Kranjska region (part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Slovenia). Anton, although very successful at the painting school, found his life call in beekeeping. In 1769, the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa wanted to improve the knowledge about beekeeping and was looking for a teacher at the newly founded beekeeping school. Anton found himself at a crossroads; to continue his studies or to work in a field of agriculture, which he adored from childhood on. He decided he is going to contribute more if he passes on his profound knowledge about beekeeping. On April 6th., 1770, with an official imperial decree, Anton became the first imperially appointed teacher of apiculture in Augarten in Vienna. His work included journeys during which he spread and promoted beekeeping in Austrian land, gave practical lessons about new scientific findings and his own observations, and wrote professional books. He wrote two important books on apiculture in German. The first book, A Discourse on the Swarming of bees, published in 1771, was translated into Slovenian in 1906. The second book, A Complete Guide to Beekeeping, was published in 1775. after his death, it was translated into Slovenian in 1792 and was the first Slovenian book on beekeeping.Following Janša’s death, Empress Maria Theresa issued a decree tby which all teachers of beekeeping had to teach according to Janša’s books. Even today these two books presents a basic reading for every new beekeeper and translated into many foreign languages. Anton Janša died on September 13, 1773 in Vienna. The most important contribution towards development of beekeeping provided by Anton Janša: changing the size and shape of the hives to a form where they can be stacked together like in order to enable the movement of a larger number of beehives to different pastures. His beekeeping methods were based on old knowledge from his father’s homeland — he introduced the authentic Slovenian bee APIS MELIFERA CARNICA to the rest of the world, invented couple handy beekeeping tools and was the first to discover the role and importance of drones in the hive (Janša rejected the belief that male bees are water carriers and assumed that the queen-bee is fertilized mid-air by drones). All new discovers of Anton Janša were later confirmed by science. In one of his books he noted: Amongst all God’s beings there are none so valuable and useful to man.
