Page:A profitable instruction of the perfite ordering of Bees.djvu/18

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The right ordering of Bees

¶Of the vnperfect Bees, which men properly name Drone Bees. Cp. iiij.

THe Drone Bees (as writeth Plinie) are vnperfect Bees, without ſting, and the leaſt weary, yet be they verye heauy of body, and ſlow in doing their buſineſſe. They alſo doe the ſeruices and trauells of the Bees, although the right and perfect Bees doe rule and gouerne them, yea and put them formoſt in their laboures, ſo that if they happen to be ſlow in their doings, then doe the right Bees puniſh them without pitie. Alſo theſe doe helpe the right Bees, ſo well in their workes as in their breeding, for y the multitude of them, cauſe the more heat and warmeth togither. And nowe muche the greater the multitude of them ſhall be, and ſo muche more will the increaſe come of the ſwarme. When the hony warmeth ripe, them are the Drone Bees driuen forth, and the kinde alſo of theſe are onely ſeene abroade in the Spring time.

¶Whether the Bees drawe breath, or haue any bloud in them. Cap. v.

NOw ſome affyrme, that the clouen beaſts draw no breth, in that they haue not the fan of the hart, which is y lights or lungs, for as they write, nothing without them can breath. But Ariſtotle writeth, that the ſame poſſible among Bees, hauing the ſting (although they haue no bladder) to breath by their ſting. And the Bees haue no bloude, bicauſe they haue neither hart nor lungs: yet Plinie affirmeth, that nothing done by nature may be thought or iudged incredible: for the ſame is fully perſuaded in wiſe mē, that the Bees haue a certain liuely moiſture, like as the Cuttle in the Sea, which hath a kinde of ynke in it, and is as the iuyce of it, with the whiche the Diers (at this day) do make their Purple colour.

¶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