Bee Industry.
"The industry of the bee may be estimated by the average number of its daily excursions from the hive to collect provisions. According to Reaumur, if the total number of excursions be divided by the total number of bees in a hive, the average number daily made by each bee would be from five to six. But as one-half of the bees are occupied exclusively with the domestic business of the society, either in nursing and tending the young, packing and storing the provisions, or constructing the combs, the total number of excursions must be divided, not between the whole, but between only half the total number of bees, which would give ten excursions to each individual of the collecting class; and if the average length of each excursion be taken at three-quarters of a mile, this would give the average distance travelled by each collector as fifteen miles! It is estimated by Kirby that the quantity of ponderable matter thus transported exceeds a hundred pounds."
The Rev. Mr. Wood, in his little manual—the most sensible of its size that has yet appeared—writes:—
"No noticeable capital is required to commence; no noticeable amount of time is necessarily consumed in their management, and they may be kept almost anywhere, though not with equal profit. One apiarian, whose authority may be depended upon, gives the profits of eight stocks only as averaging about 20l. in three successive years. Another, who was regularly engaged from six to six daily in other avocations, cleared nearly 100l. in one year by his bees. The quantity of honey that may be obtained from a hive is exceedingly variable, but offering, therefore, only the greater assurance of due rewards for able management. Fifty or sixty pounds have not unfrequently been obtained from a single hive in a season, and occasionally as much as 100 lbs.; whilst from a set of collateral boxes, 100 lbs. is mentioned; and Cotton states that as much as 210 lbs. have really been stored in a single season, by a single stock similarly situated in a roomy trebled habitation. The prices of honey in London are stated to be generally as follows:—
| s. | d. | ||
| Minorca, which is the best | per lb. | 2 | 6 |
| Narbonne | " | 2 | 0 |
| Pure native honey in the comb | " | 1 | 0 |
| Other native honey | " | 0 | 8 |
"But pure native honey in the comb, obtained in glasses, is sought for the table, and therefore often sells for double the price above-mentioned. We shall only add, that Mr. Smart, a well-known apiarian, considers hundreds of stocks may be kept where only tens are now to be found, so far as regards the capabilities of support, the main point to be considered. To that subject, therefore, we now turn."
A rather exaggerated account of the excellence of honey is given by Butler:—
"Honey cutteth and casteth up phlegmatic matter, and therefore sharpeneth the stomachs of them which by reason thereof have little appetite; it purgeth those things which hurt the clearness of the eyes; it nourisheth very much; it breedeth good blood; it stirreth up and preserveth natural heat, and prolongeth old age; it keepeth all things uncorrupt which are put into it; and therefore physicians do temper therewith such medicines as they mean to keep long."
In an article in the Quarterly Review it is stated:—
"In such esteem was it held, that one of the old Welsh laws ran thus:—'There are three things in court which must be communicated to the king before they are made known to any other person:—1st Every sentence of the Judge. 2nd. Every new song. 3rd. Every cask of Mead.' Queen Bess was so fond of it, that she had some made for her own especial drinking every year; and Butler, who draws a distinction between Mead and Metheglin, making Hydromel the generic term, gives a receipt for the latter and better drink, the same used by 'our renowned Queen Elizabeth of happy memory.'"