1835 - Beekeeping on the Nile

The Hagerstown Mail
Friday, March 20, 1835 Hagers-Town, Maryland

A French traveller, in detailing facts of
interest, Connected with his journey in
Egypt, describes the following modes of
traffic pursued by the natives on the Nile.

Amongst the barks that come down the
river, some particularly attract my attention;
we meet boats on which a great
number of bee-hives are ranged one above
another in a pyramidal form. It is two
months since these hives have been sent
into Upper Egypt, where clover and sainfoin
flourish better than in the Delta, the
traveling bees who have thus got the start
of spring, adjourn for some weeks in the
plains of Thebes and Montfalut; they
then come down the Nile, and stop in the
Fayum covered with roses; and in every
place where lands are rich in flowers afford
them booty; at the end of March
they return to the Delta, whence they set
out and are restored to the huts of the
Fellahs, who own the hives. A different
spectacle next attracts notice; it is a flotilla.
composed of several rafts; each raft
is formed of earthen jars; goes down the
Nile, the pottery of which it is composed,
is sold in the town and villages that border
on the river. At each station one raft is
disposed of. When those who conduct the
flotilla have sold all, their voyage is at an
end, they quit the Nile and return home
by land.


Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/



      

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