hive so that they would be in danger to die although they should not be driuen and especially if they be of any great age Petralba How long do you think the Bees in a hive will continue and live if they should not bee driven at all but to let them alone as long as they live Tortona How long the Bees in a hive will continue and live I hold a very vncertaine thing to affirme although I know that many haue set down their opinions concerning the same with great variety and weaknesse of judgement which I list not to stand about to confute nor do I think it necessary Only this I say that no man can judge by the time a Bee will liue although the time were certainly known which I think no man can iustly determine how long a hive will continue with Bees in it because all experience doth teach that Bees are every yeere daily renewed in the summer time and yet this is the rule they pretend to go by But I think rather that this thing must bee known by the time that Bees will like and prosper in a hive amongst their old combes which with continuance will as I sayd before become black and unsavory and that will bee sooner or later as the Bees stand to health and the yeeres happen to proue good or euill for them And therefore I would aduise no man to make triall of this matter except hee like better of curiosity than profit My selfe do not ordinarily suffer any to stand above three foure or fiue yeares at the most for if I see a hive like well and that doth cast me a swarm euery yeere I let it stand the longer whereas otherwise I driue it the sooner especially if it cast mee no swarm in the two first yeeres But then I onely change it into another hiue about the beginning of Iuly and saue the Bees to see if they will doe better in another hiue Petralba Mr. Googe doth keepe a great adoe concerning the gelding of Bees as he calleth it and the proportion that he thinketh fit to leaue in the hiues for the Bees And I conceiue his meaning to be to take from every hiue some part and to leaue them sufficient to keepe them in the winter and so by this meanes doth not altogether driue or kill any at all If it will performe that it seemeth to me to be a very good way yet doe I not remember that ever I haue hard it so much as spoken of in this Country what doe you thinke of it Tortona Marry Sir I thinke it a very good way for those that are willing to be rid of their Bees For let any man that hath beene accustomed amongst Bees consider how this thing can be done without great trouble hurt or danger to the Bees and also much losse of their honey And therefore I neuer knew any so absurd to practise that way that ever I could heare of for which cause I will not trouble my selfe to confute it as palpable enough to all men of any understanding or knowledge Petralba In what manner doe you use your Bees when you drive them doe you burne them or drowne them For I haue heard of some that use the one way and some the other but whether is best I know not Tortona I make no great difference betweene the one way or the other whether is the better But my manner of driving my hiues and killing of my Bees is in this sort When I purpose to driue any hiue I take an empty hive and sticke it like as I haue taught to put in aswarme and then with a sheete put about it and the hiue I purpose to driue using it as the common manner is in driving of hives The order and manner whereof is so well knowne almost to every man that I shall not need as I thinke to make any further speech thereof But when I haue driven the Bees as cleane as I can out of the Hiue where they were into the empty one I set up the same in the place where the other hive stood untill it be good and late in the night and that I have taken the honey out of the hive that I haue driven by which time the Bees will all be gone close up together into the top of the hiue Then I take it from the place againe gently and carry it to some plaine place made of purpose and with my hand stampe the hiue hard upon the place and so all the Bees will fall out Then have I ready a broad board which I presently lay upon them and tread upon it and so presently kill them all that none escape whereas in the burning or drowning of them or any other way that ever I could see many get away and trouble the rest of the Bees Petralba I thinke it is not good to drive any hiues untill night because of troubling the Bees and to auoyd the danger of stinging which must needs happen in the day time Tortona For mine owne part I seldome or never driue any untill somewhat late in the euening Yet I haue seene some drive hives at noone day and when it is rainy it may reasonably well bee done yet as I said I doe hold the euening best and least troublesome And when I drive three or foure in a night as sometimes I doe it is but sitting up so much the longer Petralba When you driue such hiues as are hoysted and raised up with Bricke-bats or such other things which of necessity you must take away when you driue them how doe you make the hives agree and fit well together that the Bees may goe well out of the one hiue into the other because the Combes will be longer than the lower part of the hiue and therefore it cannot come neere or goe close to the other hiue Tortona For the avoiding of that inconvenience which will be troublesome I confesse you must do thus Let your hive into which you will driue your Bees be somewhat broader than the Hive you drive and then the ends of the Combes will goe into it and you shall driue the Bees into it without any trouble or inconvenience at all more than if the hiue were not hoysted at all Petralba After what manner doe you order your honey for if I be not deceived I haue seene much better hony in some places than in other some But whether the cause hath beene in the using of it in the difference of the place where it was gathered or in the goodnesse or badnesse of the yeere wherein it was gathered that I was not able to determine Tortona Without all doubt any of these three causes may worke some effect in the goodnesse of honey Yet doe I hold the well ordering of it to be a great and principall cause to have good honey for it may bee spoyled at the first taking of it out of the Hiue or afterwards in the euill keeping thereof You see what manner of honey
He who by Bees doth ever thinke to thrive Must order them and neatly trim his Hive The ordering of Bees OR THE TRVE HISTORY OF MANAGING THEM From time to time with their hony and waxe shewing their nature and Breed As also what Trees Plants and Hearbs are good for them and namely what are hurtfull together with the extraordinary profit arising from them Set forth in a Dialogue resolving all doubts whatsoever By the late unparell'd experience of IOHN LEVETT Gent. I H DVM SPERO FERO LONDON Printed by Thomas Harper for John Harison 1634. TO THE VERTVOVS gentlewoman M rs Dorothy Kemp wife to the Right Worshipfull Mr. Robert Kemp Esquire one of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the County of Northfolk MOst vertuous and kinde J here present unto your hands and view this Treatise not great of a subiect in seeming small indeed full of greatnesse and glory For howsoever the body of this little creature while she is under sayle on her airy voyage can scarce be apprehended of sense yet the admirable power and manifold wisdome of the Creator manifested in this his working work cannot bee comprehended by reason no not by the industrious inquisitors into her busie industry This therefore hath in many ages busied many of the most learned of Natures Secretaries to observe the nature working policy thrift and exquisite perfection of this little Flie in all affayres of war or peace at home or abroad and yet have they all beene rather brought to height of admiration than made fit for full explication of the wisdome which surpassing their owne wisdome they have found in the Bee Among others the Author of this Booke Father to my selfe and it was a scholler of this schoole and hat thus written of their orders and ordering which he not living to publish J have presumed to set forth under your Name as the heire of that love and duty which he bare to the common good and your selfe whom in regard of birth qualities and fortunes as gentle friendly and the most worthy wife of a most worthy husband he alwayes highly esteemed J hope therefore that to be silent of my selfe either of your own generous disposition or your love to the deceased Author or your charity to this posthume Orphling you will most heartily accept what I most heartily dedicate together with my selfe unto you Your Worships in all duty IOHN LEVETT To the Reader BEcause it is the most usuall manner friendly Reader of those that publish any thing in writing to bestow an Epistle upon the courteous and well affected Reader I resolved also to follow the same order But I stood long in doubt whether I should do it by way of Apology for surchargeing the world with more books whereof that seemeth overfull for writing of so meane a subject when all mens minds conceit great matters or for that my selfe being one of the least should presume to thrust in my opinion among so many rare and excellent inventions found out by the curious wits of these dayes or else following the most ordinary and old fashion when all men enquire after new I should fall to commendation of the matter I write of and the profit and commodity that may grow by the well-ordering of the same Yet at the last I determined to say something concerning them all they account a part thereof whom our English writers following have not a little erred And this is the cause that concerning the ordering and keeping of Bees little is found amongst them some precepts of Mr. Southerns only excepted worthy remembrance And although that for the breeding industry art and government of Bees they have written many curious and good observations of the Ancients which are worthy the knowledge especially of such as keep Bees againe I was not much diswaded from my intention because the greatest use of this book will be for the unlearned and Country people especially good women who commonly in this Country take most care and regard of this kinde of commodity although much the worse for the poore Bees because sometimes they want help sometimes diligence but most times knowledge how to use them well And this principally moved me to undertake this work which I have performed without Art or Eloquence and after a different method or order from all those which have formerly written of Bees having set down every thing that I supposed worthy observatiō And notwithstanding many of them at the first sight may peradventure seeme to bee of little worth or else needlesse for being commonly known to most that keep Bees Yet I would intreat your patience in reading of those also and I suppose that my purpose being to teach I was unwilling to omit any thing were it never so little worthy the noting Moreover have I written any thing contrary to the common received opinion or different from your conceit bee not over hasty to censure it but observe and then try before you give iudgement And thus much by way of Apology Last of all to conclude with the excellency of hony and wax let this only suffice that they are numbred amongst the notable and chiefe commodities of some Kingdomes and the very Land of promise it selfe to give the Israelites a better liking unto it was called the Land that flowed or to use our English phrase abounded with Milk and Hony which were esteemed at that time amongst the principall earthly commodities that were to bee expected from the blessing of God And as for the profit of this booke I referre it to the successe that it shall please God to give in the use of it And so Farewell TO THE MEMORIE OF THE THRICE WORTHY Gentleman Mr. IOHN LEVETT deceased and to the eternity of his well-taken-labour in this most excellent and profitable Relation and History of BEES THere are two immortall enemies which like Butchers dogges whose mouthes are ever bloudy do continually besiege and assault everie good labour and that is Curiositie and Envie the first striving to finde out knots in Rushes or Miracles beyond mans capacitie the other devouring and gnawing upon all vertuous Actions till with the poyson of her corrupt Nature she have brought all wholsome Intents within the compasse of scandall with these two enemies if this excellent and well-taken-labour chance not to encounter it may passe into the world with infinite applause and well-liking of all men being a worke so exact and compendiously done So plaine and easie for the meanest understanding yet with all so succinct deepe and elaborate that as a Flie may easily wade it so an Elephant may with difficultie swimme in it not that there are unresolved Enigmas or things fetcht beyond the clouds to adorne it but because the Experiments being new approved and allyed both to truth and Reason the collections so manifest and not to be controlled the corrections and reconcilements of the errours of others former publishings so modestly handled cleared and adorned and the whole worke so purged
not hive their swarmes untill late in the euening and me think it should bee a very good way for at that time there is not so much danger of stinging as in the heat of the day as also they will bee then hived very quietly Tortona By that meanes they are in danger to lose many swarmes for I haue many times seene swarmes that haue setled themselues very well and within an houre or two after for want of hiving haue gone back againe to the hive from whence they came yea and sometimes haue taken their flight cleane away which might haue been preuented in time if they had presently been hived Again where there are store of Bees there will somtimes happen three foure or fiue swarmes in a day and within a very small time one of another if they should not bee hived soon after they are setled they would go all or the most part of them together which sometimes can hardly bee preuented do the best a man can Petralba But all this while I heare you speak nothing of the ringing of basons or such like which I haue often heard when a swarme is up or in rising it seemeth you are of Mr. Southerns mind in that thing for hee seemeth to mislike it much Tortona Yea verily for it is a very ridiculous toy and most absurd inuention and I assure you if it worketh any effect it is rather hurtfull than profitable to the Bees For as I said before all great noise doth undoubtedly disquiet and hurt them and so farre am I from thinking that it will hinder them from flying away that I verily beleeue it may be a principall cause to make them go away the rather besides other hurt in disquieting of them which maketh them fierce and waspish for my selfe haue had aboue forty swarmes in a yeere and haue not lost one of them when my neighbours having a farre lesse number and using this kinde of ringing and jangling yet haue lost diuers Petralba I heard you say that when diuers swarmes arise together or presently one after another namely before the other be hived that it is ods but they will go together what meanes haue you to preuent that Tortona The best way is not to suffer two or more swarmes to arise together and that is done in this manner as soone as one swarme is risen or rising mark well your other hives and if you see any begin to swarme take a table napkin or other cleane linnen cloth and stop up the mouth or hole of the hive as close as may be laying a brickbat or stone upon it untill the other swarme bee put into the hive and all quiet then pull away the cloth and it will presently swarme or within a very short time after And thus may you let them out one after another at your pleasure though you have halfe a dozen that will swarm in a day And if you use not this meanes when one swarm ariseth before the former is cleane hived you may do thus for if two rise together there is no help except they part of themselves which is very rare But in the other case when you see the latter swarm go to the former and are almost lighted about and upon the hive and that there is a good part of the former swarm gone into the hive take that hive cleane away as secretly as you can and carry it some eight or ten rods from that place at the least first hauing set an empty hive where it stood and often times I have seene the latter swarm go quietly into it and haue both done very well yet sometimes they will finde out one another and go together do what you can And that I take to be when all the master Bees happen to go into one hive so that the other hive hath none without whom as I think they cannot liue and prosper but of that I will speak elsewhere when I shall declare the manner of breeding and gouernment of Bees Petralba Mr. Southern seemeth to mislike the hauing many swarmes of one hive what say you to that Tortona That hive which hath cast mee one good swarm I acknowledge to haue done well for that yeere yet although it yeeld me another the stock may do well enough but the last swarm is in hazard except it happen soone but if a stock swarm three or foure swarmes in a yeere as somtimes I haue seene both the stock and the latter swarmes are all in great danger to die the next winter except you put two or three such swarmes together and for the stock the best way is to driue it at Bartholomew tide for in moyst summers you shall haue some hives will almost swarm out all their Bees as my selfe haue had Petralba Will Bees swarm most in moyst and wet summers Tortona Yea without all question and thereof commeth that prouerb that in moyst yeeres there is plenty of Bees and in dry yeares plenty of hony yet may there be good store of both in one and the same yeere for if May and Iune prove stormy you shall haue plenty of swarmes and if Iuly proue dry you shall haue good store of hony Petralba What doe you thinke should be the reason of this Tortona Experience doth proue it to be so yet I take the reason to be for that the Bees both spat faster and preserve and nourish their brood the better by the moysture that falleth in those times which in dry weather they cannot so well get except such as is in part corrupted being mixed with other waters And this I take to be the cause that Bees will come abroad so fast presently after a storme of raine and againe want of raine and dewes at that time of the yeere maketh them to loose their brood as I have before declared Now for honey it is out of all doubt that there is never any store untill Iuly or towards the latter part of Iune and without question drie weather is best for that Because it is nothing else but a gummy and thicke dew made by the influence of the Starres or rather caused by the providence of the divine power for the profit and delight of man falling from heauen at that time of the yeere being digested and made perfect by the nature of the Bees created for that purpose which stormes and raine will dissolue and wash cleane away And this is so apparent that every man of any observation may manifestly perceiue For when there is greatest store of honey so that it is sensibly to be felt upon leaves and flowers if there happen any great storme or raine of any continuance presently after there will bee no such thing perceived but it will be cleane gon and washed away Againe marke the Bees when they gather honey fastest as may be perceived easily in the morning by a deaw and moysture that will bee at the mouth of the Hive and also by the great smell of honey if you come neere in the
evening yet if a raine happen to fall of any quantity as I said before you shall see no such deaw the morning following nor some two or three mornings after although it be faire weather againe untill the deaw being thickned and sweetned by the heate haue againe obtained the former quallity but of this more hereafter See Southerne to take Bees out of a hollow tree Petralba You spake of putting two or three swarmes together I pray you how doe you that For I have heard some affirme that they will fight and kill one another if they be put together and can hardly be made to agree Tortona It is then because it is unskilfully done for otherwise they will either not strive at all or else very little and the manner is in this sort When you have a second swarme or castling as some call it put it into a Hiue as you doe the rest and set it up with your other and when you have another like unto it that you would put to it Hive it also in a Hive by it selfe and so let it stand untill the evening then at night when it is darke take a Fanne or board and lay it by your first second swarme to which you would put the other laying a small sticke or two upon it to keepe the Hive for standing too close to the board or Fanne lastly take your later swarme and carry it thither and with your hand iumpe it downe upon the Fanne or board so hard that all the Bees in it may fall out upon the same then take your other Hive wherein your first swarme is and gently set it over them and the Bees will presently runne into it but if any happen to creepe up on the outside of the Hive as many times some will doe with a wing sweepe them downe and they will runne into the Hive also and so it being done when it is late in the night there will be no great sturre or fighting and by the morning all will be agreed and quiet Whereas if you put them together in the day time or any other manner that ever I could see they will indeed fight and kill one another to the great danger of them both Petralba I promise you I like this manner of putting them together well and I haue not heard of he like but I pray you why may not the former swarm bee put to the later as well as the later to the former Tortona You may do so also if you please but I like the other the better for this cause peraduenture you shall not haue another second swarm sometime three or foure dayes or a weeke after your former and by that time your first swarm hath clensed their hive and wrought some pretty store of combes yea and peraduenture gathered some hony also which would be lost if you should put them out of their hive to the other whereas the other haue gathered little or nothing being swarmed but the day before Petralba That is very true indeed you haue fully satisfied me for this But I pray you is it certaine that by this meanes the Bees will live and prosper better than they would haue done being in two seuerall hiues Tortona Yea verily for all experience doth teach that very few second swarmes will liue ouer a yeere if they be not swarmed soone in the yeere which seldom or neuer hapneth except you use them in this manner by putting two or three swarmes together and then they will do as well as a first swarme although it bee great and good as my selfe haue had good proofes and experience Petralba But as I think a few Bees should need but a little food and many Bees much food and therefore it should not bee the number of the Bees that should make them thriue or liue the better but the proportion of the food they gather according to the number of the Bees that are to liue upon the same bee they many or few whereas multitudes many times make scarcity and bringeth danger to all the company Tortona You haue some probability for that you say but yet it is not altogether so in his case For although it bee manifest that Bees cannot live without honey which is their food yet is warmth an especiall matter unto them in the winter which is the onely time when they can suffer want and therefore when there is a great companie they fill the Hive or neere unto it and so keepe one another the warmer whereas if there be but few so great a place remaineth emptie and having gathered but little they easily take cold Whereon the contrarie we see that many hands make light worke so that such a multitude easily gather some good quantitie of waxe and honey to furnish the Hive and to keepe them warme and although many of them happen to die yet some good number remaineth alive vntill breeding time Whereas if there be but a few and some of them die the number remaining is not able to doe any thing and so will either die also or else forsake the Hive Petralba One thing I will here aske you while I remember it doe you coat your Hives at this time of the yeere or doe you tarry till winter time when cold weather approacheth Tortona When you have any swarme that is set up Coate it as soone as you can for the heate of the Sunne may otherwise doe it much hurt for although any great heate of the Sunne hurteth old stocks very much if they have no defence yet doth it hurt swarmes a great deale more and will make their waxe and honey to melt much sooner as in all reason may easily be coniectured because their Combes are soft and tender and their honey farre thinner then that in the old stocks Petralba I have not yet heard you declare how one might know when a Hiue will swarme is there no certaine rules for that Tortona No surely that euer I could perceiue especially before a Hiue hath once swarmed but afterwards if it will swarme againe you shall know it if you goe in the evening for you shall heare a touting in manner like the sounding of a Bewgle horne amongst the Bees Petralba I haue seene in some places where I haue beene that their Bees haue exceedingly lyen out upon the Hiue and board is not that an apparant signe that they will very shortly swarme Tortona Experience doth teach that when Bees doe lie out as you speake of it is often very long ere they swarme yea and sometimes not at all that yeere and I take the reason or cause to be two-fold one is when they are oppressed with heat either by the force of the Sunne or some other matter so that they cannot well abide in the Hive which hindereth their breeding and also they coole themselues abroad and therefore care not for swarming another cause I take to be when there is good store of hony which they are loath to forsake so continue without for