I am collecting information to show children at school on other sorts of bees and thought I would plop the Sweat Bee stuff here to share. The article is at Houzz.
1889 - "Educate The People To Eat Honey"
No clue why I an interested in reading about long gone exhibitions...but I am. 
Mr. Hershiser was a very active organizer and seems to be involved in whatever is going to happen if it includes honey bees. This show is the Bee and Honey Show held in Buffalo, NY reported in the May 25, 1889 issue of the American Bee Journal.
The last paragraph is amusing.
1893 - Orel L. Hershiser's Disquieting Announcement
A friend was able to winkle this article from the archives of the New York Times for me. The descriptions of the reactions to this news of live bees at the fair by the various organizers of the Columbian Exposition is really nicely done - made me smile.
Beware the Dearth...
Not a common word in every day conversation. Sounds a bit Lewis Carroll even!
When I went to bee school, constantly reenforced was the need to FEED YOUR BEES. Photos of big colonies all dead due to lack of food in the spring made an impression! If your bees stop taking the syrup, then stop after still offering it one or more times...but keep watch for the next time of dearth, which falls here in Connecticut in the high summer..
I had never heard the word dearth used so many times in a two hour period. I think I had not heard the word dearth that many times in my life actually...I guess it is a beekeepers word.
Let me go look...
Yup, that is the beekeeper's word of choice for the period of not enough nectar. Succinct. Very Jane Austen.
Hmm, I wonder how long dearth has been the word of choice?
Let me go look...
1885, 1890 everyone phrases it that way. (And, no, I am not going to try to find who first used it :-)
I have to share this. I love the first lines.
The reader is excellent and even an uneducated ear like mine begins to easily work out what is being said when he reads excerpts in Old English. Reading the history of the words we use is like reading a history of wars. Fascinating.
When I went to bee school, constantly reenforced was the need to FEED YOUR BEES. Photos of big colonies all dead due to lack of food in the spring made an impression! If your bees stop taking the syrup, then stop after still offering it one or more times...but keep watch for the next time of dearth, which falls here in Connecticut in the high summer..
I had never heard the word dearth used so many times in a two hour period. I think I had not heard the word dearth that many times in my life actually...I guess it is a beekeepers word.
Let me go look...
Yup, that is the beekeeper's word of choice for the period of not enough nectar. Succinct. Very Jane Austen.
Hmm, I wonder how long dearth has been the word of choice?
Let me go look...
1885, 1890 everyone phrases it that way. (And, no, I am not going to try to find who first used it :-)
I have to share this. I love the first lines.
When Venus is crusty, and Mars in a miff, Their tipple is prime nectar-toddy and stiff, — And shall we not toast, like their godships above, The lad we esteem, and the lady we love ? ... She knew no dearth of honest mirth to cheer both son and sire, But kept it up o'er wassail cup around the Christmas fire. 1840And to round out my side trip:
I've spent hours commuting to work listening to Audible's The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg.The facts about the history of the word dearth are quite simple: the word derives from the Middle English form "derthe," which has the same meaning as our modern term. That Middle English form is assumed to have developed from an Old English form that was probably spelled "dierth" and was related to "dēore," the Old English form that gave us the word dear. ("Dear" also once meant "scarce," but that sense of the word is now obsolete.) Some form of "dearth" has been used to describe things that are in short supply since at least the 13th century, when it often referred to a shortage of food.
The reader is excellent and even an uneducated ear like mine begins to easily work out what is being said when he reads excerpts in Old English. Reading the history of the words we use is like reading a history of wars. Fascinating.
1827 - A Charming Bee & Hive Frontispiece
I was having fun coloring in this page, then I thought I'd share it with you in case you like to relax by coloring.
The full size picture of the bee hives and garden from The Honey Bee: Its Natural History, Physiology, and Management By Edward Bevan is down below this little partly colored piece.
By the way, Mr. Bevan repeated exactly what I heard last Thursday in my bee class. Keep your bees well fed, and shame on you if you do not!
The full size picture of the bee hives and garden from The Honey Bee: Its Natural History, Physiology, and Management By Edward Bevan is down below this little partly colored piece.
By the way, Mr. Bevan repeated exactly what I heard last Thursday in my bee class. Keep your bees well fed, and shame on you if you do not!
Drag the image below to your desktop. It should print out to almost fill a page.
My Third Bee Class...Take Notes!
I've been waking up with bee planning going on in my head!
It's like being a new teacher, waking up with lesson planning happening in my dreams.
I think it is a mixture of anxiety and nice excitement.This Thursday the theme of the class was mainly varroa mites, the virus they spread, and a few of the more traditional infections, chalkbrood, American foulbrood, and like that.
Bees are just like keeping sheep or cows, if years of watching and reading James Herriot stories taught me anything. Thank the gods there are no prolapsed uterus with bees!!! You don't have to milk bees twice a day either...that's another thing in their favor as far as I am concerned.
But proper hygiene, nutrition and protection from the elements are key to any animal farming. Bees are no different. They are a domesticated animal, not native to the United States, with a heavy load of strength sapping conditions that can get the best of them if not kept in check. That was the nut of last Thursday's bee school...be vigilant and timely with treatments and care routines. A notebook is essential!
After typing the above advice that I got...I went online for a beekeepers notebook and found this!
Free for tiny backyard keepers like me!! beetight
I dutifully filled in the hive descriptions and histories. I am ready.
(By the way, when my other insect pals get too many mites, the common answer is to put them in a bag with coarse cornmeal and shake them! It knocks the mite load down. Mites on hissing cockroaches are symbiotic, they keep the roach clean and the roach takes them to where food is. Sometimes they get out of hand and make your pet look dusty. For an excellent article on this go to http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/roachmite.htm )
My First Bee Suit :-)
No, this isn't my bee suit!
I was at a Maurice Sendak art show at the New Britain Museum of American Art.
How could I pass up this chance for a photo?!
I look forward to wearing it when there are bees!
How long do they last for us backyard beekeepers anyway?
Will I ever have to get another one?
1893 - Bees at the Columbian Exposition
The honey and beeswax and apiary suppliers were there. Due to a lack of floor space the honey exhibits were controlled in their size and styling by being inside of glass cases which were placed on the second floor of the hall.
"Under this plan the following States made exhibits of honey and beeswax: California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In two or three instances (notably New York) exhibits of bees were kept contiguous to the honey exhibit. The whole section devoted to this industry was exceptionally attractive and highly creditable."
EXHIBITS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.
The exhibits in the apiarian department of the Columbian Exhibition were mostly installed in the east gallery of the agricultural building. Glass cases were provided by the States and provinces competing, under the direction of the Agricultural Department. These cases were uniform in size and were about 5 by 20 feet, 6 feet high, inside.
A glance, through this gallery revealed the fact of tons of honey displayed in every conceivable form that the fancy of the producer and the ingenuity of the superintendent could dictate. Besides the glass cases were many exhibits of bee keepers' appliances, consisting of hives, supers, honey extractors, sections, foundation mills, machines for putting sections together and automatically fastening the starters, smokers, honey knives, escapes, etc. Some old-fashioned round straw hives, so familiar in illustrations for the past hundred years, were there to show the methods employed by bee keepers of past generations. Alongside of these were exhibited the modern movable frame hive with various contrivances for obtaining honey in its purity and in the best marketable shape.
The comb honey on exhibition was mostly in 1-pound section boxes, made of white poplar or linen, some of which were glassed on both sides, but whether glassed or not generally built between separators, giving to the finished product an even and handsome appearance, no matter what the source from which gathered. There were many fanciful designs and mottoes worked out by the bees in comb honey.
Extracted honey was shown in large quantities. The style of receptacle varied from the small large-mouthed bottle to the large long necked decanter—in packages adapted to retail trade and in cases suitable for shipment—in its liquid state as taken from the combs, and in granulated form (a condition which most extracted honey assumes when long removed from the hive and exposed to changes of climate).
In addition to the exhibit of honey and appliances there were a number of colonies arranged along the east wall of the building with exits for the bees outside and far above the crowds of people on the ground below. These colonies were successfully managed during the .summer and stored a fine lot of honey. They were Italians and Carniolans.
Of the glass cases above referred to, New York filled three with exhibits, besides many fixtures shown outside; Illinois, two, and Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin each, one. States and Territories having entries in smaller quantities, and in some instances shown in their agricultural sections below, were California, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, and Maine.
Many of the States had superintendents in charge of their apiarian exhibits whose pleasure it seemed to be to impart instruction to the interested visitor. Much useful information was no doubt disseminated thereby.
Many of the States had superintendents in charge of their apiarian exhibits whose pleasure it seemed to be to impart instruction to the interested visitor. Much useful information was no doubt disseminated thereby.
The exhibits from the States did not adequately represent the industry in all parts of our vast domain. The reason for this lay chiefly in the fact that the State appropriations for the fair were in many cases too small to properly represent all the industries. Many States noted for their fine and large crops of honey made no exhibit or only a few samples from some patriotic apiarist.
Only those States which granted a liberal sum to the bee keepers were creditably represented. A minor reason probably influenced the bee keepers in some of the States to withhold exhibits. As before hinted, the yield and quality of honey being largely due to climatic influences, and the conditions in 1892 not being favorable, they lost interest in the matter because they could not show what they deemed worthy of exhibition.
FOREIGN EXHIBITS.
Aside from the fine exhibit from Ontario, which showed that the bee keepers of that Province were among the foremost in the world, the foreign exhibits were mostly confined to liquid honey and apiarian appliances, and were not shown in the east gallery of the agricultural building, but were among the foreign exhibits, either in other parts of the agricultural building or in other parts of the grounds.
The British bee keepers society had a large and exceedingly interesting collection of extracted honey from different localities in England, Scotland, and Ireland, put up in bottles of uniform size and style and made attractive by finely printed labels. The other countries exhibiting honey, or appliances, or both, were: Italy, Greece, Russia, Ottoman Empire, New South Wales, Ceylon, Siam, Spain, Argentine Republic, Republic of Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil, Costa Rica, Haiti, Mexico, and Venezuela.
These foreign honeys were subjected to the disadvantages of change of climate, want of freshness (as they were all of 1892 crop or earlier), and lack of persons in charge who understood how to properly care for them, but much fine honey was shown in spite of unfavorable conditions.
Russia exhibited a very interesting collection of hives and models of hives, and implements used in the apiaries of that country, showing that modern ideas have taken root in the minds of the Russian bee keepers.
World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Ill., 1893, Volume 2
Not honey, but a delightful exhibit, here is a grain decoration in the PA exhibit.
And what about a horse made of grain!!! I do wish I could find more honey exhibit photos.
This was a Missouri exhibit. I love the train with corn in the coal car :-)
1956 - Odd Newspaper Article on Mourning Bees
If you do a search for "telling the bees of a death" you will get a zillion pages to look at. This article is a bit different, so I'm sharing it here.
Bee Tangent: Ngram?
My husband just saw mention of Google Ngrams onTWIT TV's This Week in Google and sent me the link.
What Ngram does is see how many times a phrase (or other stuff if you want) appears in publications in a span of years.
So how many times does the phrase honey bee appear over the years, what percent of all scanned publications does it appear in?
1976? So, what was all the honey bee buzz in 1976?
Look below the graph to see what I found.
- In 1976, the US Department of Agriculture published a report by one of its former employees, S. E. McGregor, a honeybee expert who documented that about a third of what we eat benefits from honeybee pollination. This includes vegetables, oilseeds and domesticated animals eating bee-pollinated hay.
- In 1975 and 1976, Varroa disease was found in Argentina and Uruguay. There is a possibility of this disease to also exist in the northern region of Africa. (It was in Bulgaria in 1964.)
I couldn't find anything much of general public interest. Tons of normal scientific research though. I'm thinking it must be the result of the last 10 years of funding for research which became available due to increased awareness of what was at stake when the varroa mite made its way to North America. Or, more (or as) likely at that time, colony collapse was starting to be a phrase entering more common usage in 1966-ish. The funding must have continued upwards from around 1965.
That is my guess.
My Old "Bug" Books and Insect Friends
This post is just me blathering on. No bee content really.
It is hard to believe I started life as a little kid who almost jumped from a moving car because a ladybird flew into the back seat with me.
I don't remember much from when I was very young so this must have been very traumatic; I can see it now, a tiny red "killer animal" walking up the old Dodge sedan's rear window!
My journey into liking insects and honey bees was helped along by my liking for books.
This Frank Lutz book is my favorite New England. It never failed me back before Google. While black and white pen drawings look old-fashioned...they are the easiest and best way to compare what you have to the text. Lately, I must admit, I "identify by consensus", using Google image search to describe what I have, then see what most people who had the same insect think it is. Usually in the bunch is a reputable source as well.
Honey bees are my current interest, sure, but insects have been a part of my life for a decade or two. I raise hissing cockroaches to give away to teachers for school science. Buckets or aquariums of roaches have graced my kitchen for many years Mu husband is almost used to them. Right now they live in a plastic bubble I found at the dump's trade shack. It used to be an aquarium, but it makes a great home for my colony, having a bit of "style"!I also became interested in all the insects around my house. Some were interested in me, or rather, my house; carpenter ants ate the floor joists out from under the kitchen before we knew they were anywhere in the house! I became very attuned to ants during that time.
Then there were the sand wasps, Bicyrtes quadrifasciata, out my back door in the sandy area that was waiting for pavers for 27 years. Those are so entertaining I am leaving a sandy area just for them if they can put up with a smaller plot. (I finally got the bluestone pavers of my dreams!) I was one of the hundreds of people who posted to YouTube videos of them digging their burrow. I think every year I fried my brains out in the sun and sand to photograph them, it is so interesting.
Lately carpenter bees have been excavating our workshop, leaving great sprays of yellow poop down the side of the building as they launch themselves into flight. If they would only use the fascia in the rear of the workshop I'd be fine with it...only the shop windows are under a couple nests! Yuck. We keep saying we have to screen the facia before they show up; someday we'll get it together...maybe.
The last insect invasion that was really cool was that of springtails. Totally harmless to me it was just so dramatic to see huge blankets of these little dudes covering the stone wall and everywhere else that year. If you got your ear down close to the leaves it sounded like mini-popcorn popping. Very nifty. This was back in the early days of the net and I was astounded at the support from ENTOMO-L at the time. My world expanded with a big bang!!!
This video was another more recent year.
Heck, I'll post all my videos I can find on my school YouTube channel for the last 6 years! I put them there for my students. I used to have a Bug Club.
My Favorite Honeybee Books
My head, almost literally, is abuzz with honey bee information!
Unfortunately, if you could look into my brain you would not see cross indexed neuronal file cards, but rather a colorful untidy pile of facts and fancies resembling instead what a five year old pushes under their bed when cleaning up!!!Here is some of what littered my house before I committed to the idea of getting bees...
By the way, the Amazon links I give you benefit my old elementary school's PTA, not me :-)
- While A Sting in the Tale is not about honeybees, it is a super book! I loved it.
- Kim Flottum's Backyard Beekeeper is a great go-to book that was given out as part of my "bee school".
- And that reminds me that, much to my surprise, Beekeeping for Dummies is really good for beginners, too!
- The University of Georgia's book Honey Bees & Beekeeping: A Year in the Life of an Apiary, 1996, by Keith S Delaplane is nice and goes along with many, many videos the university has on YouTube. How cool is that?!
Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness Fascinating travels of a man obsessed by exploring the honey of the world. One of my favorites.
- Clan Apis is absolutely genius. Really! A must see graphic scientific/graphic novel. Read Modern Farmer's review and interview with the author to see what it is.
- Sue Hubbell's Book of Bees is a new classic. A nice read.
- Karl van Frisch's book is an old classic! In fact you can't buy it for a good price on Amazon. Go to Abebooks to check out used book dealers. Keep you eyes open and you can get good deals. Pay attention to the condition descriptions.
That's it for today.
- I haven't read The Way to Bee...I just fell for the title and the price.
I am a sucker for the gmail bees...can you tell? :-)1877 - More about Mr. Muth
Obviously Mr. Muth is someone people who are interested in bees find out about right away. That great engraving of his hives on his Cincinnati business building gives you an idea of his energy! While I saw that old late 19th century article first, I soon found out his honey jar is so loved that reproductions are still offered for sale. They are in the Mann Lake catalog this year, on eBay, and Amazon! I like it, too...although the hexagonal glass jars are a nice design that looks expensive!
Charles F. Muth who was one of the early leaders in American Apiculture, having founded the Muth Honey Business in 1858.
He was one of the early entrepreneurs that found a niche and worked hard to fill it. A beekeeper himself, he shipped into Cincinnati tons of honey from other regions as far away as California for processing and wholesaling.
He developed and branded many apiary tools, my favorite being the Muth's Cold Blast Bee Smoker!
Then this news turned up which puts things in a different perspective.
Charles F. Muth who was one of the early leaders in American Apiculture, having founded the Muth Honey Business in 1858.
He was one of the early entrepreneurs that found a niche and worked hard to fill it. A beekeeper himself, he shipped into Cincinnati tons of honey from other regions as far away as California for processing and wholesaling.
He developed and branded many apiary tools, my favorite being the Muth's Cold Blast Bee Smoker!
- Charles F. Muth's Two-Frame Honey-Extractor, with honey reservoir and honey-
gate - Muth's Cold Blast Bee Smoker
- Muth Honey Knife
- Muth's Wax Extractor
Charles Muth appears to have been a "straight shooter" as this next anecdote illustrates...
I've found one way to get a feel for a business man is to read their obituary. I know people cut dead folks a lot of slack, but it still gives you insight into Muth's life.
Mr. Chas. F. Muth, of Cincinnati, one one of the grandest, whole-souled men in our ranks, has passed away; probably by his own hand. He was found dead (shot) May 16th, at his farm near Morristown; Ind. Mr. Muth suffered from sunstroke several years ago, and since then his head has troubled him more or less. Although he was possessed of considerable property, it was scattered and he was in debt, and these things probably worried him.I remember so well my meeting with him at the World‘s Fair in Chicago, and noting how well and ruddy he looked and asking him how it was. He said “Well, Brother Hutchinson, I‘ll tell you. I have a farm out a few miles, and I spend a good deal time there out in the open air. That explains it."The last time I met him was at the State fair, last fall, in Indianapolis. He came and talked with me as much as two hours, and told me, among other things, how he had suffered when his son died. The world had never seemed the same since.He also tried to speak cheering words to me, and did all that his big sympathetic heart could to lift the burden from mine. It is too bad that we do not know how to take better care than we do of these frail minds and bodies of ours, and, knowing it, do it.The Bee Keepers' Review, Volumes 11-12 - 1898
Here is another...
DEATH OF CHARLES F. MUTH
Mr. Charles F. Muth, senior member of the firm of Chas. F. Muth & Son, Cincinnati, whose advertisement and market quotations appear regularly in The Bee-Keeper, committed suicide by shooting on May 16th. The rash act is thought to have been committed in a moment of temporary insanity, resulting from a sunstroke, which he suffered several years ago.
It is doubtful if there exists in the United States today a commission house that has succeeded in winning the same degree of confidence among the honey-producing fraternity as that of which the name of Chas. F. Muth has been at the head since our earliest recollection.
The fact that Mr. Muth was, himself, a bee-keeper, may in part explain the cause of this confidence, which became the basis of a very extensive and successful business, as inferred from the reputed extent of his fortune; which is said to have reached hundreds of thousands.
Deceased was about 65 years of age, and is survived by a wife and six grown children.The American Bee Keeper, Volume 8 - 1898
Then this news turned up which puts things in a different perspective.
Be that as it may, Mr. Muth did great things for honey producers in his heyday and left us a charming honey bottle.
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