Association between humans and honey bees is extremely ancient, with illustrations from the Stone Age surviving in several regions of Europe and Africa. These show a change from harvesting honey from natural trees, or so-called honey huntingHoney hunting, to deliberate beekeeping in hives made of logs, clay, cork, or straw. Over the centuries, humans have transported European honey bees far from their native range to America and Oceania. In the nineteenth century, the invention of the moveable comb hive led to the development of modern beekeeping. Artificial queen rearing seems to have had its origins in Ancient Greece, but really developed in the nineteenth century in the USA and Europe, and the first use of isolated mating sites in Germany enabled true selection of material, and there was much interest in different strains of bee. In the twentieth century, selection became organized with breeder associations and the production of hybrid bees such as the “Starline” in the USA and “Buckfast” in the UK. In recent years, scientific evaluation of different strains has taken place to increase resistance to varroa and support commercial beekeeping.