The history of beekeeping in the United States is interwoven with the history of U.S. agriculture. Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are not native to North America. The first settlers brought colonies from England and Spain in the 1600s. Beekeeping advanced from destructive honey harvesting to colony management with the invention of the removable frame by L. L. Langstroth in 1852. Throughout the 19th century, races of honey bees from throughout the world were imported into the United States to improve honey production and winter survival. Consequently, a large gene pool exists here, particularly in the feral population. This explains why it has been possible to select for resistance to pests of bees such as tracheal (Acarapis woodi Rennie) and varroa mites (Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman). Economic conditions and technology have increased the efficiency of crop production, caused a steady flow of the U.S. human population from rural to urban areas, and reduced the number of small family farms. Large corporate farms have replaced the small family farm. To increase efficiency in crop production, corporate farms plant large numbers of acres in a single crop, which has created pollination problems in crops requiring cross-pollination. As a result, growers increasingly have needed honey bee colonies for pollination. The number of colonies available for pollination, however, is declining because of disease, pesticides, and parasitic mites. Creative solutions are needed to alleviate colony losses from diseases and pesticides and integrate honey bees and native pollinators into agroecosystems in ways that enable their populations to be sustained.