A profitable instruction of the perfect ordering of Bees/First Treatise/Chapter 9
What kinde of Bees are beſte, and rather to be choſen. Cap. ix.
IN this point, for true knowledge of theſe, doth M. Varro diſcribe thoſe Bees to be beſt, which be finall of body, and diuerſe and round, bycauſe they be earneſt in labour, and make a thinne honny, and better endure labour, and gather their honny on hilles, but the worſer Bees gather their honny of the garden floures onlye, whiche be ſomewhat long of bodye, lyke to waſpes. Virgil doth eſpecially commend the ſmall Bees, beyng ſomwhat long, light, and clenly in their buſineſſe, and gliſtering to golde. So that the greater and rounder Bee, is diſcommended of all writers. Although the fierce Bees are very ill, yet is their yrefulneſſe, a note of the better Bees, whiche may easily be appeaſed, by the daylye haunting among them, for if the kepers do often handle the Hyues, then do they become gentle in in a ſhort time.
{{bl|The Bees alſo endure if they be diligently loked vnto, for the ſpace of ten yeares, and beyonde this age no ſwarme can paſſe, althoughe the keepers ſupplye the Hyues yearelye with yong Bees, in the ſteade of the olde deade, for in the tenth yere, in a manner, of the generall death of them, the vniuerſall kinde of the whole Hyue is then conſume. And therefore, that thys maye not happen throughe all the Hyues in that place you muſt alwayes increaſe your Hyues with yong Bees, which diligently Hyue in the ſpringtime, or beginning of Sommer, when as the ſwarmes be firſt and newe thruſt forth of the Hiues, and ſo maye the number of your Hiues be encreaſed. Agayne ſome wryte, that in the Countrey of}} Pontus, the beſte Bees bee white, bycauſe they gyue theyr yeelde of Honnye twyce in a moneth. And Gulihelmus de couchis affirmeth the beſte Bees to be aboute Thermodoon in Capadocia, abyding in the Earthe, for that theſe doe buylde and make a tryple yeelde of ware, and giue alſo aboundaunce of Honny.
The foreſayde Varro, affirmeth thoſe Bees to be in healthe, which often kepe and be in a ſwarme togither, that be clenly & can do their buſineſſe and worke alike, and that quicke & light in the ſame, beyng neyther hearie nor foule of body, or appearing duſtie, ſuch alſo which be not ouerleane of body, and that out of any of their cotages no dead bees be carried thēce, & forth of their Hiues. For all theſe notes do declare ſuche like Bees, to be both euill and vnprofytable. Palladius declareth, that the beſt Bees may be knowen by the fulneſſe or emptineſſe of their veſſels, for if the Hiues be full, then thoſe Bees doth be beſt cōmende, if the Hiues be nothing ſo full ſtuffed, thoſe Bees doeth be greatly diſſalowe. And he alſo praiſeth thoſe Bees, whiche excelleth or paſſeth others in the loudneſſe of humming, or do abound in the great haunte of the ſwarme, not broughte to the Hiues from farre places, ſo that there maye be ſuch agrement, that they be not after feared alwaye, with the newneſſe of the aire and place.