Thomas White Woodbury


Thomas White Woodbury was an English journalist and beekeeper, devoting himself entirely to beekeeping from 1850 onwards after the death of his son. He was responsible for introducing Ligurian or Italian bees to Britain in 1859.
Woodbury held strong views on the superiority of Ligurian bees over the native Old English Black bee. An article by him published in the “Bath and West of England Agricultural Journal” in 1862.
He further developed the Langstroth hive design of Rev. L.L. Langstroth, which featured a movable frame around the bee space. His version was known as the 'Woodbury Hive' and was marketed on his behalf by George Neighbour & Sons, the London specialists in beekeeping supplies. He was a regular contributor under the name of “A Devonshire Beekeeper” to the "Cottage Gardener", "Journal of Horticulture", "Gardeners’ Chronicle", and "The Times".
Woodbury lived at 17 Lower Mount Radford Terrace, Exeter, in Devon, and was the son of W. H. Woodbury, a linguist and part-owner of the "Exeter and Plymouth Gazette". Thomas played an active role in the management of the newspaper, before concentrating on the study of bees.
Some of the earliest Italian bees were sent from England to Australia at the request of Edward Wilson, president of the 'Acclimatization Society of Victoria'. The bees left England in September 1862, spending 79 days at sea in Woodbury hives before landing at Melbourne.
Charles Darwin's enquiry about possible varieties of honeybee in Germany, landed on the desk of Woodbury, who at the time was editor of the bee section of the "Journal of Horticulture", and was forwarded by him to the German journal "Bienen Zeitung" in 1862. The following year Woodbury suggested to Darwin that it might be interesting to compare the cell sizes of Apis indica with those of the European species.