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bee gum noun A bee hive fashioned from a hollowed section of the trunk of a blackgum tree; more generally, any hive for bees. [DARE labels this usage “chiefly South, South Midland”]

1864 C A Walker CW Letters (April 19) every bee gum every hog chicken goose duck and every thing to eat is taken. 1926 Willy Great Smoky Natl Park 54 Mr Ogle was pleased to show us his “bee gums,” as he called them. They were the native style of beehive. “Bee gum” seems to be the name given them because, originally the first settlers caught and kept their swarms in hollow gum trees, which is done to this day ... These are hollow tree trunks sawed to about twenty inches in height. 1964 Reynolds Born of Mts 8 This was then called a beegum, because made from a black gum tree–a wood that would not split. 1991 Weals Last Train 11 The family made beehives from sections of hollow blackgum log, and burning and scraping the inside of a “bee gum” was a winter chore by the open fire.