Sweet Americana Sweethearts: Mail-Order Bees and the Pain of Unrequited Love

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Mail-Order Bees and the Pain of Unrequited Love

By Kimberly Grist

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 a revolution in beekeeping practice, improved by Lorenzo Langstroth's invention of a movable-comb hive. 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.

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

While researching vocations during the 19th century, I became intrigued by beekeeping. While writing A Beekeeper for Christmas, now included in the Heaven Inspired Brial collection, I decided to further my research by becoming a beekeeper myself. Despite my research, good intentions, and special attention, which included adding a new story, treatments to clear the area of bugs and mites, and numerous refills of sugar water, my ungrateful bees flew the coop!

There is a word for it- I say abandonment, but the official word is absconding. Absconding is when the bees abandon their hive entirely. Well, they bolted alright, all of them, leaving me and a rather pricey bee condo, otherwise known as their hive. Despite my disappointment, there must be an inspiration in this experience somewhere. Perhaps my next story should be titled "An Abandoned Beekeeper or No Honey for Hal?" What do you think?