The handy book of bees : being a practical treatise on their profitable management / [A. Pettigrew].

  • Pettigrew, Andrew M. (Andrew Marshall), 1944-
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The handy book of bees : being a practical treatise on their profitable management / [A. Pettigrew]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and received the cognomen of “ The Bee-man and by this name he was well known for thirty years in a wider circle than the parish of Carluke, Lanark- shire, in which he resided. The district of the parish in which he lived when he kept most hives, took then the name of “ Honey Bank/’ which it still bears. While a common labouring man he saved a great deal of money from his bees; indeed it was reported in the Glasgow newspapers that he realised £100 profit from them, one season. His example and success have, twenty-five years after his death, not yet lost their influence on the successful bee- keepers of Carluke, who say, “ The old bee-man taught us all we know.” The bee-man saved money enough to purchase the Black Bull Inn of the village, and therein commence business as a publican and butcher. When his sons reached their teens, the management of his bees’ was left in great measure to them. It was then that the foundation of what I know of bees was laid ; and though I left my native village thirty-five years ago, I am still known there as “ the bee-man’s son.” As most readers of a book like to know a little of the author, I may be par- doned the egotism of saying, that at the age of eight- een I was apprenticed to the occupation of gardening at Carstairs House. In about four years afterwards I went to London to pursue my business. While an apprentice at Carstairs, and a journeyman in Middle- sex, I kept bees in “ hidden places ” in the planta- tions and shrubberies; and while acting in the capacity of head gardener, managed the bees of my