The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1902-08-29
How the Bees Make Honey.


The bee industry is assuming prom
inent proportions in Nevada. Last
winter three or four carloads of bees
were shipped from California to Lyon
county, and the owners are now begin
ming to harvest their crop. They have
received carload of five-gallon cans
and are now extracting the honey from
the comb and filing the cans for ship
ment to market. Some of the honey
will be marketed in the comb In ex-
tracing the honey from the comb pro-
cess is used which throws the honey
out of the cells and leaves the comb
almost completely in tact. The comb
is then replaced in the hive and the
bees go to work to repair and refill the
cells. AS the repairing takes but
short time compared to that which
would be taken to build an entire new
comb, the bees begin almost immedi-
ately to again store up honey.
The bee business is also growing
rapidly in Lovelock Valley. Eleven
men there own over 800 swarms of bees
and it is estimated that this year they
will have forty tons of honey to sell.
But this has been backward season.
Almost no honey has yet come in from
the second crop of alfalfa. The storms
in the early part of August left the
weather too cool. The alfalfa has not
bloomed well and in fact it is not MAX
ing good hay. Unless it turns warm
the honey crop will be light.
There is great fascination about the
bee business and it is mos5 profitable
industry. Alfalfa makes excellent
honey and alfalfa comb honey COM
mands fancy price, going as high as
twelve cents per pound. Some kinds
of comb honey are worth only nine
cents.
Strained honey is worth from six to
six and half and there is more money
in this. A swarm of bees will produce
twice as much honey if they do not
have to stop and make combs. 1t is
estimated that the bees will consume
twenty pounds of honey while making
the comb. They also lose this time. A
good swarm of bees will produce a
hundred pounds of honey in a season
of about five months. Thus the amount
of honey gathered by one bee in a day
would be so small that it would take a
microscope to see it.
But it should be borne in mind that
the bee gathers this honey only to lay
up for winter use. 1t has no other
purpose and aims only to supply its
own needs. 1t has been found in coun-
tries where there are no winters that
the bees quickly discontinue the man.
ufacture of honey.
Lovelock apiarists will have $4,000
worth of strained honey to sell this
season, a very neat sum considering
the small outlay it requires to start an
apiary. And it is also said to be a
benefit to the alfalfa to have the bees
in the fields to pollenize it.
The queen bee will always remain
the pride of every bee man, as she is
the pride of every colony A queen
been admits no rivals, and where two
are born in the same hive they fight
until one of them dies. The queen bee
has a singer but she never uses it, and
the apiarist handles her with impunity.
To sting is to lose her life, for such is
the fate of every bee that uses and loses
it's stinger.
The capacity of queen bee is said
to be eight hundred thousand eggs,
and she will lay three thousand eggs
day. She will fertalize but once in
her life and seldom lasts through two
seasons. 1t should also be borne in
mind that the life of working bee is
only about forty days. The male bees
or drones have no stings, and they
gather no honey.
1t is the aim of every apiarist to con-
troll the number of drones and he does
this by foundation. This is the parti-
ton or the basis on which the bee builds
her cell. Man has spent millions of
dollars in trying to initiate the bee in
building her comb, but he has got no
further than stamping the initial points
of the cells on the foundation These
initial points of the cells are made
small, and it takes larger ones for the
drones. The queen bee cell is still
larger.
The queen bee travels over these
cells with her escort and fills them
with eggs. Then they are afterward
filled with honey, and fill this double
purpose for as long as thirty years.
Ordinary beeswax is worth twenty
five cents pound when melted down.
But in the delicate structure as the bee
builds the comb it is worth that much
an ounce or four dollars a pound.
Under the present perfection of the