Page:A profitable instruction of the perfite ordering of Bees.djvu/36

Rh ſhred into hiues, for the Bees to feede and ſucke vpon in the deepe of Winter, & the fine feathers alſo they will to put into ye Hiue, that they may giue them a warmth to the Bees lying in them. And others alſo will to put the meate of roſted Chickens into their Hiues, to feede and ſucke vppon, and not the boanes withall, leaſt annoy the bees by lying ſtill in the hiues, in that they ſo greatly abhorre all ſowre and ſtinking ſauors. Alſo theſe kinds of fleſh ordered (as aboue ſayde) may well ſerue the Bees in another drie Sommer, when as the moſt floures are then or quite gone away. Here note, that in the Spring and Sōmer time, the bee-hiues ought to be loked vnto thrice in the moneth, gently ſmoking the Bees, to clenſe the Hiues of al maner filth, and to ſweepe forth the wormes. Also Menecrates willeth the keeper of Bees, to kill the king blacke of colour, whiche by hys malice diſquieteth the other king, and corrupteth the Hiue, in that he flieth out alone, or with a company of ye bees folowing. So by that meanes (as Virgil writeth) ſhall the battel of Bees be ſtayed. Palladius writeth, that the ſwarmes be increaſed in the moneth of May, and that in the outmoſt ſides of the combes be the drone Bees bred, which ought to be killed, in that thoſe do muche diſquiet the reſt of the ſwarme. The Butterflies alſo do abounde, which he willeth diligently to kill, for their greate annoyaunce to the honny Bees.

About the beginning of Nouember ought the Hyues then to be cleared of their filth, ſo that al the Winter following they may neyther be remoued nor opened. And this may not be done but in a warme ſunny daye, the combes maye not be touched with hands, but with the feathers of ſtiffe gooſe wing, or ſuch bigge foule. After that to ſtope the chinkes round about wyth Oxe dung and clay finely laboured togither, and to lay ſtrawe thicke ouer the toppes of the Hiues, the better to defende the Bees from the cold and the tempeſtes. How