Category Archives: History
Goodbye, 2019
As 2019 draws to a close, let’s look back at some of the year’s beekeeping stories. Honey prices were lower again in 2019, forcing some beekeepers out of the business. Still, many countries now have more honey bees than anytime … Continue reading
Langstroth’s Christmas Present
I’ve been posting this piece every Christmas for a while. If you’ve read it before, read it again. Or not. Christmas Day is L.L. Langstroth’s birthday. He’d be 219 years old, if he hadn’t been struck down in his 85th … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Books, History, Hives and Combs, People, Tools and Gadgets
Tagged Langstroth, The Hive and the Honey-Bee
8 Comments
Ulee Jackson has died
Peter Fonda died today. Most accolades will mention his starring role in 1969’s Easy Rider. I won’t. Instead, I’ll talk about his performance in Ulee’s Gold. That movie gave Fonda his only Oscar nomination (he lost to his friend Jack … Continue reading
Posted in Commercial Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History, Movies, People
Tagged Florida, Peter Fonda, Ulee's Gold
8 Comments
Bees in Space
Fifty years ago, I was a kid, glued to the TV, fascinated by man’s first frolic on the moon. Grainy black and white images from the moon filled our grainy black and white television. It was a signal from the … Continue reading
Remembering Eva Crane: Beekeeper and Physicist
June 12th. I have an excuse to write a bit about the amazing Ethel Eva Widdowson, born in London on June 12th, 1912. By age 30, she had defended her doctorate in nuclear physics, begun to teach at Sheffield University, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, History, People
Tagged Canada, Eva Crane, IBRA, Mexico, Miel Carlota, Saskatchewan, Tammy Horn, varroa mites
4 Comments
Can we learn old tricks?
I have a small collection of old bee books, and I like searching them for new ideas. (If you can’t get new ideas from old books, what’s the point of history?) My favourite beekeeping books are the ones that tell … Continue reading
Posted in Books, History, People
Tagged Bad Beekeeping, beekeepers, CC Miller, Golden Age of Beekeeping
7 Comments
World Bee Day 2019
World Bee Day, May 20 of each year, is not just about honey bees. Although the idea arose in Slovenia, a little country that’s really big on honey-bee keeping, it’s also a celebration of all the world’s bees. About 20,000 … Continue reading
Posted in Ecology, History, Native Bees, Outreach, Save the Bees
Tagged Anton Jansa, dogwood, Native Bees, Slovenia, World Bee Day
5 Comments
Century-old beekeeping equipment
This picture is from exactly 100 years ago. It was late winter, 1919. An agriculture agent came to this Kentucky Appalachian farm to teach modern beekeeping. He was teaching ‘modern beekeeping’ that we can recognize. Not much has changed in … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, History, Hives and Combs
Tagged bee hives, frames, Kentucky, winter
7 Comments
Bee A Valentine
Beekeepers are not sentimental. For most of us, Saint Valentine’s Day is a day of intense panic when male beekeepers rush out to buy something special for some darling or pigsney. (It’s not like we didn’t know February 14 was … Continue reading
Posted in Comb Honey, Culture, or lack thereof, History, Hives and Combs
Tagged Valentine
3 Comments
Nuns of honey
I bumped into this photo a few days ago when I was writing an article for Deutches Bienen Journal, Germany’s beekeeping magazine. I was trying to picture sisters at a convent in Quebec, tending their hives in the 1920s. This … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History, People
Tagged Hungary, monks, nuns, Quebec
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