A profitable instruction of the perfect ordering of Bees/First Treatise/Chapter 6
Of the great vtilitie and profite of the Bees vnto mans vſe. Cap. vj.
A Great profite ariſeth by Bees, if they be ſet in a conuenient and fit place, and that both carefully & wiſely guided, as Plinie writeth in his vj. booke, where he willeth, that of al other clouen beaſtes, the Bees to bee principallye cheriſhed, bicauſe to man svſe they gather a ſubtile and wholeſome myre, beyng bery ſweete, and beſides they frame by a maruelous ſkill and cunning, theyr cotages of ware vnto mans vſe, that no workman (to be neuer ſo ingenious) can do the like. The profite alſo comming by them in a ſhort time, if the weather hindereth not, is ſo greate, that they increaſe in a ſhorte time into manye ſwarmes, which ſwarmes againe increaſe others, ſo that the firſte ſwarmes increaſed, they eſpecially thruſt forth from them in the moneth of May, or June, by whych meanes they cauſe a great increaſe of thē. As Varro affirmeth the ſame of two head Gentlemen in Spaine, which only by the means of their Bees, gayned yerely tē thouſand poūd (but I rather thinke fiue thouſand pounde, which alſo is very muche) yet here is to be noted, that the ſwarmes of ſyxe yeares olde, doe ſeldome encreaſe after other ſwarmes of themſelues, although in ware they giue a great yeelde and gayne to the owners.