Mr. and Mrs. Eli Winesap of Oregon and their 10 children, ranging in age from two months to 21 years, arrived in Whiteville Monday, bringing with them, in charge of their oldest son, 550 hives of improved Italian honey bees and another full car load of bee keepers’ supplies.
Mr. Winesap is an experienced bee keeper and his eldest sons are also well acquainted with the business. They were attracted to Columbus by our great amount of woodland, flowering plants and the success that several local bee keepers have made of the business of growing honey. The family came overland in a truck with some of their furniture and the eldest son came in a cattle car with 500 swarms of bees to water and watch over them during the long journey. Besides the car full of bees, another full car was used to bring extra bee keepers’ supplies in the way of additional hives, honey pressers, containers and the many requisites to the profession of raising honey.
The family have rented one of Mr. R.B. Lennon’s cottages on the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Asheville highway, and in the extreme western edge of town. The bees will be located about in the woods at several points near Whiteville, and Mr. Winesap and his eldest sons will devote their entire time to their care and attention. This will be by far the largest apiary in Columbus county. Mr. R.W. Scott Jr. of Bolton is understood to have nearly 220 hives of bees, and until the coming of Mr. Winesap, Mr. Scott is understood to have been the largest bee growers in Columbus in point of number of hives. Mr. Winesap’s 550 colonies is more than double the number ever before owned by any individual or individuals in this county.
Speaking of the trip of the bees through the country The Greensboro News in its Sunday issue had the following to say:
“Eleven million bees spent part of last night in Greensboro.
They liked the town all right; they admitted as much to newspaper men who interviewed them. But they had to move on; so they left late in the night for Whiteville. They expect to reach Whiteville sometime Monday. If they get plenty of water they think they will have a pleasant trip. If they don’t get plenty of water, they hope they will be make the trip a very unpleasant affair for all persons concerned.
The bees reached Greensboro late yesterday afternoon from Mount Airy. they came over the Atlantic and Yadkin. It’s a pretty good road, they think, and they are in heart accord with Governor Morrison’s proposal to have the state purchase it. But that’s apart from the story.
The presence of the visitors followed their sale by F.W. Johnson of Mount Airy to Eli Winesap, formerly of Oregon. Mr. Winesap plans to start a big bee farm at Whiteville. The bees worked fine for Mr. Johnson, he stated last night, and he was on friendly terms with them. But at Mount Airy his charged had to depend practically altogether on sourwood blossoms. When the sourwood blossom crop failed, the honey crop failed. and the sourwood blossom crop has a habit of failing about two out of every three years. Mr. Johnson wanted to keep on living at Mount Airy. So he was willing to sell his 550 colonies, in each of which was about 20,000 bees. Mr. Winesap wanted to buy and the deal was closed.
The 11,000,000 were loaded into a cattle car. The hives were placed in rows along the car. Then a platform was built, and another row added until the hives were all in place. The car was about full. The entire car was screened. Of course the hives were closed but the screen was placed in the car as an extra precaution. Mr. Johnson accompanied the car to Greensboro, Eli Winesap Jr. was also along. Every time the train stopped the bees were soaked with water. This kept them from getting hot, Mr. Johnson stated. From the noise they were making they evidently needed something to cool them off. The water treatment will be kept up until they reach Whiteville.
In Greensboro Mr. Johnson left the car. The bees had had time to get used to young Mr. Winesap, he thought, so Mr. Johnson returned to Mount Airy. The car left late in the night over the Southern for Goldsboro. From Goldsboro it will be routed to Wilmington and from Wilmington to Whiteville.”
From the front page of the News Reporter, Whiteville, N.C., Thursday, April 3, 1924
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