A profitable instruction of the perfect ordering of Bees/First Treatise/Chapter 12
By what ſignes men may know, when the hony Bees are diſeaſed, and how men may cure them. Cap. xij.
THis is a ſpetiall argument and note, that the Bees, are diſeaſed, if that they fly ſcattering in the ſwarme, if they keep not their proper colour, but be (as it were) of a ſtrange and cōtrarie colour: if they alſo are ouer leane, if they appeare duſtie and hairy, and that out of their cottages bee dead Bees carryed thence. When al theſe notes and ſignes are eſpied in the Bees, it is then highe time to ſeeke remedye for them, leaſte helpe (by longer running) be ſought too late. Therefore Palladius willeth to miniſter the kernels of Pomegranats, bruſed and mixed with ſweete and pleaſaunt Wine, and the ſame powred in to the chanels or gutters of halfe canes, ſet nere to ye mouths of hiues, or honny, with Roſe leaues well beaten togither, and ſo miniſtred to them, or the berries of the Saruice tree bruſed, and mixed w Honny: for lacke of theſe helpes, a man may make a ſmoake of drie Oxe or Cowe dung, whiche ſmoake muche delyghteth and comforteth them, ſo that the ſame be often vſed vnto Harueſt.
But if throughe the Maggots or little wormes of the Butter-flyes the Bees be diſeaſed, Rutilius then iudgeth it beſte, to ſet a braſen Candleſticke, or ſuche like veſſell, with lighte burning in it at Euening, within the hyue, that to the ſame light (ye Butter-flyes gathering, and flying about) may ſo fall down into it, and be deſtroyed.
Ariſtomachus writeth, that the diſeaſed bees maye bee couered in this maner, if that all the corrupt combe within the hiue be taken forth, and freſhe foode anewe put in of the whole, and the hiue after ſmoaked within. Alſo he affyrmeth, that Roſemarie ſodden with water and honny togither, and beyng colde, pured into halfe canes or Elder ſtickes, made hollow like gutters, and the ſame ſet by the mouthes of the hiues, for the Bees to drinke on, doth recouer the Bees again. Hyginius {{bl|affirmeth that eyther the Ore or mans vrine ſet in like manner (as aboue ſaide) by the mouths of the hyues, doth alſo recouer the diſeaſed Bees. Nowe all theſe, and ſuche like muſte the keeper of the Bees doe, whiche is both a ſober and chaſte, and feedeth not vppon ſowre or tarte meates, nor filthy or ſtrong of ſauour, nor any ſalt meates.}}