Historical information

Beehive smokers douse bees with smoke to calm them and make them less likely to sting while honey is extracted from beehives. They were invented in the mid nineteenth century, prior to which bees were killed in order to extract their honey. The invention of the bee smoker was an important innovation in the history of apiary.

The Wodonga Historical Society beehive smoker appears to be of the same design as the patented Woodman’s Bingham Bee Smoker, produced from 1878 by T. F. Binghan of Albronia, Michigan.

Significance

The Wodonga Historical Society beehive smoker is an important artefact connected to local history, and the history of apiary in Wodonga. Beekeeping was a popular pastime in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and apiaries were subject to regulation by the Wodonga Shire Council. At a 1914 meeting of the council, for instance, a by-law governing beekeeping in Wodonga was enacted after Mrs Smyth complained that Mr Bassett’s bees were swarming the watering holes in her paddocks and preventing livestock from drinking. There were areas within the Wodonga township where apiaries were prohibited, and Mr Bassett’s bees had fallen foul of the law.

Physical description

A canvas, wood and metal beesmoker from the early twentieth century.