Beekeeping or apiculture is the farming of honeybees . In prehistoric Greece ( Crete and Mycenae ) , there existed a system of high-status apiculture , as can be concluded from the finds of hives , smoking pots , honey extractors and other beekeeping paraphernalia in Knossos . Beekeeping was considered a highly valued industry controlled by beekeeping overseers â '' owners of gold rings depicting apiculture scenes rather that religious ones as they have been reinterpreted recently , contra Sir Arthur Evans .