hold and kéep their stings in their mouths by a gréedy desire, or for eagernesse sake. Now after the seauen starres named Vergiliæ, be once risen in sight aboue our horizon, then do they hyde them in their proper holes, so that they go seldome after abroade, vntill the Beanes doe bud, and if they happen to beginne at any tyme to flye abroade when as a fayre daye moueth them forwarde, then slacke they no suche dayes afterwarde, but occupy themselues. And firste they prepare and make their combes, which they fashion into apt houses, or rather celles of waxe, after this they haue yong, and then beginne they to gather hony. They liue also the longer by hauing their stings, for that once gone, or taken away, they dye forthwith through the lacke of their intrailes, whiche they lose togither with their stings.

The reporte goeth, that one Aristomachus first founde out and taught the increasing of Bées, whome Plinie writeth to be so earnest in the same, that setting apart al other affayres, he only studied night & day how he might best intreate and vse Bées, according to their kinde. But others ascribe this inuention to one Thassius, who (as they saye) deserued no lesse commendation, both for his diligence and skill among Bées: but this he specially followed in the fielde, and that farre from the Towne. And of this the common people (as by a nickname) no more named him Thassius, but Agrius, for his wilde or rather straunge life, whiche he then led in the fielde, Whome Plinie also affyrmeth to haue written a Booke of the increasing and multiplying of Bées. And Columella ascribeth this inuention, to the inhabitaunts of the hill (named Hymetus) being in the Countrey of Attica, for there (saieth he,) was one Ericthonius, who taught (as men write) the true and perfect ordering of them. Plinie againe ascribeth the inuention of Hony to one Aristeus a man of Athens. Diodorus Siculus in the sixte Booke of hys workes, writeth, that Curetes, a people of Creta, did firste finde out the Hony, Macrobius ascribeth the same to one Saturnus. Others to the Thessalians. And many to Melissus, an auntient King of Creta, others to Nassus Liber Pater, thus writing, that Liber hath obtayned the renowne for finding out of Honnye.

Firste the Bées procéede of Bées, by the actuall doing togyther, after whiche they lay egges, sitting vppon them, as the Hens do on their egs. And when they haue sit on them for the space of .xlv. daies, then do they hatch their yong ones, whiche yong (at the first) come forth, much like to white Worms, except the King, who onely as he is hatched, hath wings. At the firste time, one of them hatcheth fiue young togither, the nexte time fewer, and so fewer & fewer, vntill she commeth to one at a time, bicause the abundaunce whiche is in them, dothe in the continuaunce of time weaken. In the time of their sitting they make muche noise to gette them heate withall. And aboute the sides of the combes, be sometimes greater Bées bred, which men for their sound & noise do properly name Trumpeters, and they also haue whole hornes, of which come the bastarde Bées. There be also other Bées bigger in body, muche-like to the Kings, but they be ydle, and haue no sting, bicause of the heauinesse of their body. All which kindes, Guilielmus de Conchis didde obserue in the Hyues of a certaine Consull of Rome, whiche properly were made of verye thinne and cleare horne. Some write, that Bées are also engendred and bredde monstrously, and that contrary to Nature, without the mutuall coniunction, if that a whole calfe be buried in the earth, and there lye rotting whiles the wind blow out of the Weste, for by that meanes, as writeth Maro, doth the same bréede Bées. And not vnlike to this doeth Cornelius Agrippa in his firste Booke de Occulta Philosophia, and Hiero. Cardanus in hys ninth booke of Subtilties write, that of a rotten horse do waspes procéede: of an Asse, Humble bées: of a Mule, hornettes: of the haire of a woman (hauing then hir motherly courses) Serpents: and of Creuisses (the shelles plucked off,) Scorpions.

The Drone Bées (as writeth Plinie) are vnperfect Bées, 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 true Bées, although the right and perfect Bées 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 Bées punish them without pitie. Also these doe helpe the right Bées, so well in their workes as in their bréeding, for that the multitude of them, cause the more heat and warmeth togither. And howe muche the greater the multitude of them shall be, and so muche more will the increase come of the swarme. When the hony waxeth ripe, then are the Drone Bées driuen forth, and the kinde also of these are onely séene abroade in the Spring time.

Now some affyrme, that the clouen beasts draw no breth, in that they haue not the fan of the hart, which is the lights or lungs, for as they write, nothing without them can breath. But Aristotle writeth, that the same is possible among Bées, hauing the sting (although they haue no bladder) to breath by their sting. And the Bées 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 men, that the Bées 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.

A great profite ariseth by Bées, if they be set in a conuenient and fit place, and that both carefully & wisely guided, as Plinie writeth in his xj. booke, where he willeth, that of al other clouen beastes, the Bées to bee principallye cherished, bicause to mans vse they gather a subtile and wholsome iuyce, beyng very swéete, and besides they frame by a maruelous skill and cunning, theyr cotages of waxe vnto mans vse, that no workman (be he 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 Iune, by whych meanes they cause a great increase of them. As Varro affirmeth the same of two head Gentlemen in Spaine, which only by the means of their Bées, gayned yerely ten thousand pound (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 waxe they giue a great yéelde and gayne to the owners.

First certain Bées as the skilfull practisers do write, stand in the day time at the mouthes of the Hyues, diligently loking to their businesse, like warders placed at the gates of a Castel, that they maye so defend in safegarde whom they will within. In the night time they