‘Two classes of beekeepers’

In Phillips’ nearly 450-page book from 1915, Beekeeping: A Discussion of the Life of the Honeybee and of the Production of Honey, the very first subsection is called ‘Two classes of beekeepers’, which describes amateurs in contrast to professionals, or ‘specialists’. The book goes on to explain that in the case of an outbreak of brood disease, an amateur is ‘not financially interested to an extent which will compel him to care for the disease … The small beekeeper usually becomes a menace to the industry in such an outbreak’.

Phillips believed that the ideal beekeeper was a professional, and sought to discourage half-hearted beekeeping. In 1909, he wrote: ‘[t]he persons interested but little are a serious detriment to the industry, especially in regions where bee diseases exist’. He reasoned that smaller hobbyist beekeepers who lacked the financial incentive to address contagious diseases like foulbrood would put their beekeeping neighbors at risk. He went on:

The main objection to numerous small bee keepers, rather than fewer and more expert ones deeply engaged in the industry, is, that when the larger number is interested it can not be hoped that all will become proficient … when some contagious disease is present in a region this becomes a serious matter … [T]he negligent bee keeper keeps property which, if diseased, constitutes a nuisance, and is constant menace to the progressive man … If progress is to be made … it must be done by progressive bee keepers financially interested to an extent sufficient to compel them to combat disease.

Andrews, E. (2020). ‘The main objection to numerous small bee keepers’: biosecurity and the professionalization of beekeeping. Journal of Historical Geography, 67, 81-90.

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