Plain Talk Beekeeping
The Intrinsic Value of the Bee Supply Catalog
A few weeks ago, I picked up yet another bee supply catalog at a meeting. No big excitement there. After all, like phone books, we get a new one every year. Normally, I flip through them to see the expected listings with a few new products, but rarely are my socks knocked off at some new feature or new product. (For all equipment manufacturers, these comments are going somewhere. Hang on.)
But for all their routineness, where would beekeepers be without equipment manufacturers and their requisite catalogs? In years long past, if you were not a woodworker who could build bee equipment following any one of tens of plans, you contracted with a woodworker who could build them for you. You also cobbled up your own protective gear, improvised a smoker and, if you wanted an extractor, you found a metal worker. We should not be so blasé about the one-stop shopping offered by our modern-day suppliers.
Old bee supply catalogs
For a while, I tried to collect old bee supply catalogs. I mean, how much demand could there be for them? Who of you has a 1985 Lands’ End catalog or a 1979 L.L. Bean catalog? If you don’t have one, how much are you willing to pay for one? As it works out, people are willing to pay a lot for a bee supply catalog that was free when it was printed. The value seems to increase if it is old enough or is from a company no longer in operation.
Since these old supply listings are an unintentional source of some of our beekeeping history, I wanted some of them as reference sources. Specifically, I wanted them for the dimensions they presented when describing equipment that is now obsolete. It was a rational, non-compulsive need by one such as I with an interest in beekeeping history.
As it works out, many of you want old catalogs for personal collections, so the demand for them seems to be considerable. The competition has been too great, so I gave up on my collecting efforts. However, before I stopped, I gathered some interesting pieces. The oldest I have is a 1910 Dadant Catalog of Bee Keepers’ Supplies, while the latest are the 2024 catalogs from everyone making bee equipment today. That old Dadant catalog had actual samples of both veil netting and wax foundation contained within the catalog. That is no longer done by current manufacturers (he said with a chuckle).
In 1909, Kretchmer Manufacturing Company issued the 95th edition of their Bee-Keepers’ (sic) Supplies. They labeled themselves as the oldest bee supply house in America and published their catalog in German and English. They listed: the Massie Ventilated Bottom Board …
