Thomas wildman: using bee beards to popularise knowledge about honeybees
Born in 1734, Thomas wildman used ecentric means to popularise knowledge about honeybees, even gaining the attention of the monarch! In this Honeybee Histories, I examine his story.
Name: Thomas Wildman
Born: 1734
Died: 1781
Location: England
Era: Early Modern
Bee link: Wrote and publicised beekeeping in a fun way and even got the attention of the monarch.
There are some beekeepers today who have made it something of a parlour trick to attract their bees to their face to form a beard made of a swarm. You might have seen images and videos of people doing this online. The bees swarm over the person, covering their chin and often most of their head and shoulders. Sometimes most of the body can be covered.
How To Grow A Bee Beard
In the video example, the documentary claims that the practice began sometime in the 1800s, but there is a precedence dated to the preceding century in the form of Thomas Wildman. Ron Brown described Wildman as something of a celebrity during the reign of George III. Nearly 500 fans brought his book A Treatise on the Management of Bees, before he had even written it. Brown adds that:
“the subscription list included the King and Queen, the Dukes of Norfolk, Portland, etc. the Earls of Essex, Coventry, etc. Also scores of other titled people, professors, clergymen, architects, postmasters, army officers, Fellows of the Royal Society, hosiers, linen drapers, coffee house proprietors, and so on.” (Brown, 1994, 29).
Not only that, but Wildman was known for giving public performances where he directed his bees to go back and forth from one hive to another and ‘ordered’ his bees to cluster on his chin like a beard. The most extraordinary claim though, is that Wildman, as Brown explains, ‘made swarms of bees follow him around a circus ring while galloping on horseback’.
Who was Thomas Wildman?
Little is known about his early days beyond the fact that he was born in Devon and spent his early life in Plymouth. Although, Wildman travelled to London in 1766 to seek his fortune, he was already known locally in Plymouth for his tricks with bees. In a 1766 essay on the management of bees, John Mills told the story of a man from Plymouth who could order bees to form on him, stating this as confirmation of another account of a man who claimed to be able to master bees in the same way. This is presumably a reference to Thomas Wildman, and that is certainly the conclusion that Brown (1994, 29) has made.
Within two years of reaching London, Wildman had received patronage from King George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte. Indeed, Wildman’s book “A Treatise on the Management of Bees”, published in 1768 was dedicated to the Queen.
A master beekeeper?
While Thomas Wildman was best known for his tricks with honeybees, there was a serious side to his work as well. His book proves that he was well read on the subject of beekeeping and knowledgeable from his own experiences. He even innovated, using four or more flat-topped skeps per stock, piled one on top of the other to form a structure not dissimilar to a hollow in a tree trunk. He would start with one skep, then place another below it, and then another below that one, and then one more, slowly encouraging the Queen bee to lay eggs in the lower portions and for the workers to build their newest combs at the top.
Wildman also sought to avoid killing bees when taking honeycomb. Chapter 5 of his book takes the argument that killing bees only harms our own interests as we then have less stock to produce more. He states:
“Were we to kill the hen for her egg, the cow for her milk, or the sheep for the fleece it bears, every one would instantly see how much we should act contrary to our own interest: and yet this is practised every year, in our inhuman and impolitic slaughter of the bees.” (Wildman, 1768, 93).
To make his case, Wildman referenced Columella as an ancient example where it was not necessary to kill bees to take wax and honey and then found a more recent source (by George Wheeler) describing similar practices in current-day Greece. In doing so, Wildman sought to emphasise that the ‘Greek-method’ could be an example to follow in England. He gives other examples from elsewhere too.
As Brown (1994, 30) argues, Wildman realised that the Queen bee would only lay eggs in the top level for a short time as the colony became established. She would then pay attention only to the lower levels. Once those early eggs hatch near the top, the comb would then be turned entirely to honey production, thus making it much easier to simply take the top skep without doing any harm to the bees or the larvae. As Brown notes, this ‘is a logical management system in which bees are steadily building combs downwards, as they would be in nature, and storing honey in the upper parts of the combs, which can be taken off during the summer’ (Brown, 1994, 30).
While he used skeps himself, Wildman did also sell wooden boxes made of red cedar, a business that his nephew, Daniel took over later in his life. Brown suggests that Wildman’s advice to use red cedar (a particularly expensive wood) might well be the reason why the English tended to use this wood over cheaper alternatives.
Sources
Brown, Ron, Great Masters of Beekeeping (Northern Bee Books: West Yorkshire, 1994).
Mills, John, An essay on the management of bees (London 1766). [online version]
Wildman, Thomas, A Treatise on the Management of Bees (London, 1768).