BFI

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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