This is most of my Bee Hive collection from the 1944-64 series (Group 2). Not all but most. I’ve added several more since this picture was taken.
I have 75 of 78 Habs Bee Hives, missing only the extremely rare Tod Campeau and the light background J.C. and Gilles Tremblay (I have the more common dark backgrounds.)
Beehives were part of my youth and I would nag my mom to buy lots of Bee Hive corn syrup so I could remove the collars at the top and send them to the St. Lawrence Starch Company and get my free pictures.
The photos are much bigger than hockey cards, measuring 5.5 x 8 inches, and some of them are extremely difficult to find. The valuable ones are the non-stars, the guys who only played a handful of games in most cases.
Kids wanted the stars, so there are plenty of Rocket and Beliveau etc. out there. No one was clamouring for guys like George Robertson (31 games with the Habs), or Tod Campeau (42 games), or John Hanna (6 games), and there were less printed of these journeymen.
