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Keen beekeeper John Charles 'Bee' Mason made quite a few films about his
passion. The Edwardian period was an era in which mankind was undergoing another
of its periodic crazes about bees and the films were popular. In construction,
the film is a simple one, showing scenes from the life of the hive. Some
diagrams have been inserted, magic lantern-style, to show the development of the
young bees in the cells, which presumably was too difficult to film at this
early date. Otherwise the film gets up close to the bees, giving the audience an
opportunity to do something they may not have dared to do in real life. Most
impressive is J.C.B. himself, confidently scraping an entire swarm of bees into
a basket with a stick (and without the use of a bee helmet) and then shaking
them out to populate his wooden beehive. A promotional device by the exhibitors
to promote events at which Bee-Mason would lecture apparently included a real
live beehive in a glass case.
Bryony Dixon
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Complete film (7:15)
