A profitable instruction of the perfect ordering of Bees/First Treatise/Chapter 4
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.