Mail Order Bees a profitable vocation by Kimberly Grist

While researching vocations during the 19th century, I became intrigued by beekeeping. While writing, A Beekeeper for Christmas, I decided to further my research by becoming a beekeeper myself.

From the beginning of beekeeping in the 1600s until the 1800s, many farmers and villagers kept colonies of bees to supply their own needs and for friends, relatives, and neighbors. But honey was also used as part of local trade.

The Bee Friend, by Hans Thoma, 1863/1864

Beehives were among the popular products of foraging during the Civil War. The article below tells of a time when such foraging was part of at least one practical joke.



"The soldiers tramped many a mile by night in quest of depositories of sweets. I recall an incident occurring in the Tenth Vermont Regiment - once brigaded with my company- when some of the foragers, who had been out on a tramp, brought a hive of bees into camp after the men wrapped themselves in the blankets and by way of a joke, set it down stealthily on the stomach of the captain of one of the companies, making business quite lively in that neighborhood shortly afterward."  Source: Image and Article from; Hardtack and Coffee; Or, The Unwritten Story of Army Life: Page 246, By John Davis Billings 1887- (Ouch!)

Commercial Beekeeping 

The 19th century saw the revolution in beekeeping practice completed through the perfection of the movable comb hive by Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth. Langstroth designed a series of wooden frames with a rectangular hive box.

This invention enables the beekeeper to inspect and remove honey without destroying the comb. The emptied honeycombs could then be returned to the bees intact for refilling.

Other beekeepers used his methods and began producing honey on a commercial scale. By the late 19th century, the price of a box of bees could be as much as sold for the same amount as a calf or sheep, more than a hog.

New Addition

This past summer I added a second story and asked the question.

Does that make me a condo owner or a little crazy? Maybee both? Despite the addition, treatments to clear the area of bugs, mites, and numerous refills of sugar water, this week I discovered my bees flew the coop!

It seemed like a good idea at the time... The Pain of Abandonment!

There is a word for it- I say abandonment, but the official word is absconding. Absconding is when the bees completely abandon their hive. Well, they bolted alright, all of them, completely leaving their hive.
In light of the problems in the world, this is minor, but I was disappointed and, in an attempt to cheer myself up, will be looking for a silver lining. I keep thinking there must be an inspiration in this experience somewhere. Perhaps my next story should be titled, An Abandonded Beekeeper or No Honey for Hal? What do you think?

Now- In Honor of Those Who Got Away- Here's a Sweet Deal For You! 

(Find out what a beekeeper has to do with it!)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09645C3MP

Can his mail-order bride handle the diversity that comes with her husband’s dangerous vocation? Together will they blend their opposing desires to create a recipe for love?

Selah Anderson agrees to participate in a matchmaking service organized by her pastor and the orphanage's matron, where she spent most of her life and become a mail-order bride. The man of her dreams will share her love of creating delicious confections and running a successful bakery. People will come for miles to purchase her specialty-shoo-fly pie.
Stagecoach driver Emerson Clark isn’t looking for love. But he knows life is better with a partner by your side- like a good team of horses supporting one another around the ruts in the road and along the narrow paths. As long as she’s practical, he’ll be happy.

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