On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1256

the honey sac, a storage tank that holds the
nectaruntilthebeereturnstothehive.Certain
glandssecreteenzymesintothesac,andthese
worktobreakdownstarchintosmallerchains
of sugars and sucrose into its constituent
glucoseandfructosemolecules.
Afewremarkablefiguresareworth
quoting.Astronghivecontainsonemature
queen,afewhundredmaledrones,andsome
20,000femaleworkers.Foreverypoundof
honeytakentomarket,eightpoundsareused
bythehiveinitseverydayactivities.Thetotal
flightpathrequiredforabeetogatherenough
nectarforthispoundofsurplushoneyhas
beenestimatedatthreeorbitsaroundthe
earth.Theaveragebeeforageswithinone
mileofthehive,makesupto25roundtrips
eachday,andcarriesaloadofaround0.002of
anounce,or0.06grams—approximatelyhalf
itsweight.Withitslightchassis,abeewould
getabout7millionmilestoagallon(3
millionkmperliter)ofhoney.Inalifetimeof


gathering,abeecontributesonlyasmall
fractionofanounceofhoneytothehive.
TheAdvanceoftheBeeinNorth
America
We’re lucky to have a near-contemporary
description of the honey bee’s movement
across North America. In 1832,

Washington Irving toured what is now the
Oklahoma region and published his
observationsinATouronthePrairies.The
ninth chapter describes a “Bee-hunt,” the
practice of finding honey in the wild by
followingbeesbacktotheirhive.
Itissurprisinginwhatcountlessswarms
thebeeshaveoverspreadtheFarWest
withinbutamoderatenumberofyears.
TheIndiansconsiderthemtheharbingerof
thewhiteman,asthebuffaloisofthered
man;andsaythat,inproportionasthebee
advances,theIndianandbuffaloretire.We