Eva Crane

Sep 17 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

BEES in their infinite and fascinating variety had been the life of the nuclear physicist since she and her groom were given a working hive to celebrate their nuptials.

And, if she is now seeking a place to settle in Paradise, it will be in the Zagros mountains on the borders of Iran, Iraq and Turkey, where honey first pleased human tongues.

For the brilliant Eva Crane was very probably the world’s foremost authority on beekeeping. When asked by an eager reporter, the ticklish question: “Can tropical bees be prevented from absconding?”, she replied: “Beekeeping management can help, by reducing stress caused by ants by excessive day/night temperature changes or other disturbances.”

From that, we know that Mrs Crane knew her stuff.

But then her keen quest for bees and their honey took her on trips through 60 countries in dug-out canoes, dog-sleighs, light aircraft and more conventional forms of transport.

She won a scholarship to King’s College, London University, from Sydenham Secondary School, Kent, and completed a degree in mathematics, following that with an MSc in quantum mechanics and a PhD in nuclear physics.

In 1941, Eva Crane began lecturing in physics at Sheffield University and soon after that married the stockbroker, James Crane.

In the midst of war, nuclear physics might have been a fashionable field, but the arrival of the hive, intended to add honey to their sugar ration, led Eva Crane into the world of the apiculturalist.

Before long, she was subscribing to Bee World and serving on the committee of the British Beekeepers’ Association, which became the Beekeepers Research Association in 1976.

One of her proudest discoveries was that some beekeepers in remote parts of Pakistan still used horizontal hives of a sort similar to those found in excavations in ancient Greece.

Her reputation for research and understanding of the bee spread far from the front-room of her home in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire. In addition to her own writing, which included books and 180 learned papers, Eva Crane collected a magnificent bee archive, now housed in the National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth.

From 1949 until 1984, she edited Bee World. She was also the editor of the journal of Apicultural Research (1962-1982). Her final book was most appropriately titled Making a Bee-line (2003).

Eva Crane, beekeeper; born June 12, 1912, died September 6, 2007.