When I told my grandparents that we were getting bees, my Grandaddy told me that they used to keep bees when he was young. He grew up on a farm near Heber Springs, AR.
This is what he told me... writing it down before I forget!
-When he was a toddler, he crawled through the hedge around the bee yard and got stung all over. They covered him in sulfur molasses. He said that they would have covered him in chewing tobacco, but nobody in the house chewed.
-His job was to light the smoker, which was a rag on a stick, and keep the bees off of his dad while he "robbed" the hives. He said the he couldn't run if he got stung!
-His uncle died of a bee sting. He was out working in his fields, got stung and couldn't get to help fast enough. Grandaddy said he died of a heart attack because of the sting.
-His dad used to find new bees by going to the creek, finding some bees getting water and following them back to their hive. It was usually a hollow tree. Then they'd cut out the tree-hive and bring the bees to their bee yard and put them in a box-hive.
-They kept 8-10 hives at a time.
-When I showed him the picture of our hive in the back yard, he said, "Don't let 'em swarm!" And told me that I needed to get another box to put them in if they did.
It seems like almost everyone who had family who farmed back in the day kept bees. Even myy neighbor was telling me that her father kept bees at their farm.
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