Bee-Keeping On The Move

Made by The National Film Board 1947. Directed by Shan Benson. Migratory beekeepers move their hives around the country, following the blossom. This film follows two apiarists from the Bega region of New South Wales, who take their bees to a stand where the trees are flowering. They set up their hives and the bees are released to take their store of honey from the surrounding bush. The keepers themselves go bush while the bees are on the job. The honey is then extracted from the combs on the spot by means of a portable extractor. After a few weeks, when the stand has been worked out, the beekeepers and their hives move on.
After this film was published on KZbin the local Bega newspaper ran it on their site and were eventually able to identify the two men featured as Ernie E Abrams and Ron Shuhkraft. They uncovered an interesting back story to these two men which you can read hear:
www.begadistric...

[@keithsteele5580]

Takes me back to 1960 when first I started in beekeeping, wow what memories

[@davidtaylor2939]

It's a good lesson, that our heritage is hard work in tough environments.

[@FrederickDunn]

OOohhh, this is wonderful! I love seeing old films and getting a look back at the way things were. Amazing really, how little has changed and how good the advice still is. I also love the "feather mattress" reference :)

[@NFSAFilms]

Hi Frederick thanks for the positive feedback. Gives us a buzz ;-)

[@FrederickDunn]

Absolutely! :)

[@jeffposchalk1740]

just found this today beekeeping early days of Australia great short film looks like times are a lot simpler way of life

[@virgilpine9712]

It's amazing how with all of this moving around, the bees know where their homes [hives are. Just think of it, if your house was a trailer house attached to a truck and I drove you around hundreds of miles, then without you seeing where I took you, I stopped the truck and you had to go out searching for work. Would you know how to get back home without a road or a map? These bees go out and probably fly far away from the hive looking for blossoms, yet, yet, they find their way back to their hive. Also, with all of those hives, do they know what hive to go back to, or does it matter? Can they go back to the neighboring hive? Fascinating little beasts they are.

[@crispernator]

what a great video into beekeeping years gone by i think they did it a lot tougher than today

[@Finke.]

Technology at its finest with the advanced truck handbrake @ 6:40 ...

[@Keeperofthebees]

That was awesome

[@TheQuinny67]

I'd bee happy to talk to you about the piece of footage. I'm ( sort of ) related to to Ron.. the younger one in the video ...

[@NFSAFilms]

Since being published here the two Apiarists have been identified. Read their interesting story here www.begadistrictnews.com.au/story/2193379/throwbackthursday-begas-beekeepers-on-the-move-identified/

[@NFSAFilms]

***** Thank you very much for the positive feedback (like Jimi & a Marshall). We have a few thousand more so please keep watching.

[@MeganAlkins]

Great flick, I love to see how things have evolved with beekeeping. I don't think I could ever work in shorts around bees.