Bees and beekeepingPast & Present:Shipping Bees a Century /Kgo

摘要

With the arrival of spring, my thoughts turn to shipping bees — from a century ago, give or take a decade, maybe two.Several years ago, I gave a brief historical beginning of the package bee industry in American Bee Journal, using my collection of old shipping packages as original artifacts, acquired after hunting them for years. Old shipping packages, built in discarded designs, are difficult to find. Most of them must have met their end by fire or rot. The lucky ones, forgotten and hidden, may be up in the loft of a barn, passing away the years until found by another generation.Always on the hunt for old packages, I found some more, reported here. I also found another way to ship bees a century ago. I knew this method existed, but I had never seen this type of shipping device until recently. Let's explore our way to that example with some historical events in the development of our package bee industry.