Country Enterprise - the mystery of honey. Getting paid to put hives in orchards

<P>Producing honey is one of nature's delights. </P><P> You kill nothing to produce one of the finest foods available to man. The work must necessarily be carried out in an unhurried manner or the bees and therefore your production levels will suffer. Even when you have supervised all the work carried out on the hive yourself and handled your bees for years, you are still presented with a feeling of mystery when dealing with honey. There are innumerable legends and items of folklore about honey and bees. Honey is said to help a number of illnesses, including arthritis and bronchitis. Apparently, the Phoenicians called Britain the Isle of Honey. </P><P>For all its centuries of use and appreciation, honey has still not been conclusively analysed. There is still a small percentage of the contents that has not been classified. There have been attempts to produce honey from the known constituents but this has not been successful. Clearly we require bees to make our honey as much as we require them to pollinate our crops. If you live in a fruit- growing area, you may be able to find a farmer who will actually pay you to put your hives in his orchards to pollinate his fruit. This is indeed a bonus; your bees get free access to nectar-rich fruit blossoms and on top of that you are paid for their efforts. To sell good, clean honey is often just a question of putting a sign at your gate. In many areas, especially if you are keeping bees in an urban environment, this is sufficient to sell surprisingly large quantities. In country situations you may have to take your produce to shops or other outlets. Make sure that the label clearly shows that it is pure honey and where it was made. Customers like , to know where the honey came from and a pretty label will help your jar to sell if it is in competition with others. </P><P><A HREF=bees13.htm>selling honey</A></P>