In Romania, beekeeping began very early, the conditions for keeping bees being favorable. According to the historical sources, the Thracians and the Dacians, the ancestors of the romanian people, kept bees and obtained honey and wax.

The petrified honeycombs and the works of antiquity historians like Herodotus, Xenofon or Virgilius are proving that beekeeping was an important occupation on the actual territory of Romania in that times. In 425 BC Herodotus wrote that the territory from accros Danube (Istros or Istru or Hister or Danaistru) is occupied by bees and because of them one cannot go farther.

Maxims for opening the hive:

• Have the smoker ready to give forth a good volume of smoke.
• Use the smoker to scare the bees rather than to punish them.
• Do not stand in front of the hive lest the bees passing out and in take umbrage.
• Be careful not to drop any implements with which you are working; take hold of all things firmly.
• Move steadily, and not nervously.
• Do not run if frightened, for the bees understand what running away means as well as you do.
• If the bees attack you, move slowly away, smoking them off as you go.
• If a bee annoys you by her threatening attitude for some time, kill her ruthlessly.
• If stung by a bee, rub off the sting, instead of pulling it out with the nails of the thumb and forefinger and thus forcing more venom into the wound.
• Ammonia applied to the wound made by a bee-sting will usually afford immediate relief.