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Bee-Culture at Present: Egyptians

Egypt still values the honey-bee, and though the ancient dynasties have passed away, the descendants of the bees of Menes survive and continue to gather nectar from the flowery banks of the sacred river.

Concerning the bee in Egypt a modern writer has a word to say. "The Egyptians exhibit great skill in their manner of cultivating the bee, as the flowers and the harvest are much earlier in Upper Egypt than in Lower, and the inhabitants profit by this circumstance in regard to their bees. "They collect the hives of different villages on large barks, and every proprietor attaches a particular mark to his hives; when the boat is loaded, the conductors descend the river slowly, stopping at all the places where they can find pasturage for the bees. After having thus spent three months on the Nile, the hives are returned to the proprietor, and after deducting a small sum due to the boatmen for having conducted his hives from one end of Egypt to the other, he finds himself on a sudden enriched with a quantity of honey and wax, which is immediately sent to the market. This species of industry procures for the Egyptians an abundance of wax and honey, and 37° enables them to export a considerable quantity to foreign countries."