when did honeybees immigrate?

I have a possibly ridiculous question:

I started a community garden in Austin, TX and one of my gardeners protested putting in a bee hive because European Honey Bees are not native. Do we know when European bees arrived in the US? Is the name European just a description and not really an indication of origin?

btw, we are putting in the bee hive anyway.

Thank you.

European settlers brought the western honeybee (apis mellifera) to the Americas. So they are non-native strictly speaking; but they've naturalized over several centuries now.

The "European Honey Bee" was brought to North America in the early 1600's.

They have been in the U.S. long before tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, cantaloupes, corn, watermelons, okra (and hundreds of other fruits/vegetables). If he wants to be an ass about the bees not being native, give him Hell about his selection of vegetables.

YOU  ALL  MISSED  THE  BOAT  ABOUT  THE  QUESTION!!!
Here is the real answer!!     :-)

This appears to be an old thread, but I believe I remember from “Guns, Germs and Steel” that honeybees were seen by some western Native American tribes as forebears of pestilence and death. This was from associated European diseases carried by settlers, and one might assume other threats brought by them. For the most part, an interesting take away was how plants and animals settlers culturally depended upon preceded the people, including peaches and pigs, cattle and clover, as well as honeybees.

Gerald Benard wrote:I have a possibly ridiculous question:

I started a community garden in Austin, TX and one of my gardeners protested putting in a bee hive because European Honey Bees are not native. Do we know when European bees arrived in the US? Is the name European just a description and not really an indication of origin?

btw, we are putting in the bee hive anyway.

Thank you.

An apis mellifera honeybee fossil was discovered in 2017 in a dry lake bed in Nevada USA. It is identical to the apis mellifera mellifera  honeybee found originally in the northern hemisphere as the black honeybee. They named their fossil find apis mellifera neoartica if you'd like to reference. There are historic records the indiginous people of America traded large quantities of honeybees wax to the early explores for European goods. Apis Mellifera Honeybees were definitely already here as that recent 2017  fossil proves! There was an import of apis mellifera Lingustica ( Italian Bees) in 1857 . Lots of indiginous people kept honeybees and Michael Bush has even agreed and written on that as well. The indiginous have original names for them and stories that predate the European colonists. Thomas Jefferson said the indiginous didn't know anything about honeybees and he said they thought of them as white man's flies but I know many natives who say he was just insulting them. There are many animals besides honeybees that are indiginous to both continents.  The list is so huge it won't fit here.

John Polk wrote:The "European Honey Bee" was brought to North America in the early 1600's.

They have been in the U.S. long before tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, cantaloupes, corn, watermelons, okra (and hundreds of other fruits/vegetables).  If he wants to be an ass about the bees not being native, give him Hell about his selection of vegetables.

Corn was in the US much earlier than the Europeans, originating from Latin America.
It was documented Canada in the year 400-600, and was in New York 500 years earlier.
Crawford et al. 2006 wrote a paper about the topic.
https://tinyurl.com/3zbfhvnt
I find it really interesting how the different crop were domesticated and evolved in different regions. Corn, after reaching Europe post-Columbuss, even lead to diseases as the nixtamalization process was unknown.

hans muster wrote:

John Polk wrote:The "European Honey Bee" was brought to North America in the early 1600's.

They have been in the U.S. long before tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, cantaloupes, corn, watermelons, okra (and hundreds of other fruits/vegetables).  If he wants to be an ass about the bees not being native, give him Hell about his selection of vegetables.

Corn was in the US much earlier than the Europeans, originating from Latin America.
It was documented Canada in the year 400-600, and was in New York 500 years earlier.
Crawford et al. 2006 wrote a paper about the topic.
https://tinyurl.com/3zbfhvnt
I find it really interesting how the different crop were domesticated and evolved in different regions. Corn, after reaching Europe post-Columbuss, even lead to diseases as the nixtamalization process was unknown.

Tomatoes, peppers and potatoes are all native to North America as well.