cannot tell when they have enough Now after the robbers are thus gone out of your stocke as I have before shewed looke in and see if there be left Bees enow to live shut them in close in the day time for a day two or three and let them out about sun-set to take aire If your stocks be full lay in three or foure little hollow kiskes or quills to let in aire else the full Hives will stifle yet they must bee so little that a Bee get not through but if all or the most part of your Bees bee gone if there be not above an handfull of Bees left then take away the stocke quite and save the hony Better is it to doe so than lose it for want of Bees to defend it Trie often whether your stocks want Bees Now in these robbing times you must try your stocks often whether they want Bees or not which you may doe by looking in morning and evening or by knocking on the side with a phillip of your finger if there bee store they will rush a prety while if few they will give a little quick sound by which you may perceive their quantitie Bees come to decay and be lost many wayes as in boisterous windes or by faintnesse by robbers and fighting by rotten combs or dead brood How you may keepe them in heart and vigour Take out the rotten combs and dead Brood I have already shewed I shall now shew you how to take off rotten combs and to take out dead brood or any other putrefaction You shall know when there is dead brood or other putrefaction by lifting them a little up on one side when it is darke and put your nose toward the worke and so shall you find an ill favour then in an evening you may still the Bees and take it out That you may still your Bees doe thus Take a coale of fire and neere the Hive kindle a little dry straw and cast upon it a little muck or green weeds to keepe it from flaming and to raise smoake then take the infected Hive How to still Bees and hold it over the smoak two or three turnes a little while and the Bees will runne up to the top of the Hive then turne up the Hive and you may see and smell where the dead brood or other putrefaction lieth Some putrefaction sticks fast in the cells or holes and is of a brown or deepe yellowish colour which should have been brood but came not to perfection Other putrefaction looketh somewhat white and was a brood but afterward tooke cold and so was chill'd and perished before it came to maturity and so turned to putrefaction and you may discerne it by thrusting your knife into the cells if otherwise you cannot see it and it is easie to discerne the hony from the putrefaction If the Bees stir while you are doing it quiet them with smoake and so drive them up againe and then take and cut out so much worke as you find infected When there is but little they can bring it out themselves but being much it will trouble them much and be long in doing or else it will taint and stench them up and make them die or leave their Hives The reason why smoake rules them Now the reason why smoake feares them and offends them so much is because of the quicknesse of their sight and smelling but let it be quickly done and away and then they are quickly pleased and come to themselves againe but to stand continually in a smoakie or bad aire they will not thrive therefore set them not neare a Kiln or any noisome aire or where smoake may beat downe upon them As concerning rotten or decaied worke you may know it by feeling it is crispy and of an ash colour and without any clamminesse or wax in it This you must cut off as high as it goeth for they cannot work to it but must gnaw it off Blacknesse is no fault but commeth by the heat of the Bees and may endure long time notwithstanding And thus being carefull and diligent to keepe your Bees sound and in plight you may find by Gods blessing the profit of your labours in the thriving of your Bees CHAP. 7. Of swarming and hiving your Bees dressing the Hives and ordering the swarmes Swarming time IF the yeere prove warme and kindly not very wet nor very dry then may you expect swarmes in May therefore prepare your seates and Hives against that time If your Hives be old bee sure to aire them well in the Sunne but lay them to aire where Hens come not at them for Bees will not abide the sent of Hens If they bee new Hives How to dresse the hives remember to make them smooth and cleane as you can by cutting or pulling off the twigges or rinds which stick loose in the Hive for else the Bees will be troubled to pick it cleane Concerning the bignesse of your Hives you must fit them bigger or lesser according to the bignesse of your swarme or time of the yeere in forwardnesse or backwardnesse And rub your Hives with beane or oake or willow or other sweet leaves and then sticke the Hive with a sticke cleft in foure quarters and cleft to the upper end within an handfull and take off the edges making the stick smooth and flat then set it to the top of the Hive and plash it foure waies and sticke the lower ends fast into the Hive within sixe or eight inches of the bottome and being bent and so set they will sticke fast Also put two cleft sticks in the middle one crosse the other let the wood whereof they are made be either withie or hasell Then when your swarme is come sprinkle a little hony or other sweet thing as wort or sugar dissolved in faire water which will make them take the better liking of the Hive As soone as the swarme is setled The hiving of Bees goe presently to hive it for feare of rising or other comming to it If it knit or light on the body of a tree or on some stiffe thing that cannot bee shaken then with a neat little broome or little greene bough sweepe them into the Hive or with a thin slice of wood made smooth for the purpose strike them in gently or if you can come to set the Hive over them with greene twiggs move or stirre them to make them runne up into the Hive but if they hang on a bough or other place that may be shaken then put your Hive under them and shake them in and being high on a tree take a cleane linnen cloath upon your arme to cast over the Hive lest they flie out in bringing them downe and being come downe bee sure to have a board in readinesse to set them downe upon Then lay the Hive on the side and turne it up gently and cover the Hive all save one side with the cloth and that open side you must
else you will put their worke out of order If you be driven to remove your stockes in warme weather you must remove them the space of a mile or two or else they will goe back to the place whence you did remove them and so many of them will bee lost and perish But swarmes are best to be removed as soone as they are hived for then they are unacquainted where they stand and there is nothing then in them which is apt to be bruised or to take harme Where and how to place your Bees after you have removed them Now when you have them let them be set in the best place you have where they may have a pretty faire flight and in a sweet aire and the ground made cleane before them the grasse kept cut or the ground hard and swept sometimes Also not neere any deepe water by the space of ten or twelve score paces if you can avoid it for the winde will beat them downe and drowne them The seat The best seat or stoole for them is a round board or stone fit to the Hive onely left an hand breadth wider than the Hive before for a place for the Bees to alight upon and set it a little leaning forward for that the raine may runne off if any be driven or fall upon it yet to keepe them from raine and wet you must cover them with boards if they be straw-hives Cover them or with straw-hackles if they bee twig-hives And be sure to keep them dry for the wet will decay both the Hive and the Bees worke Set them on a single stump the board fast nailed or if on stone et as few stumps as will set them fast and as farre under the stoole as may be to prevent the getting up of mice and other vermine Prevent their enemies Also be carefull to set them where no emmets come for they will get up into the Hive and steale out all the hony and starve and taint the Bees But if they come at unawares then shave the stumps on which the Bees stand and anoint them round the middle with tarre which will keepe the Emmets from going up And throw seething water on the emmets or destroy their hill or nest if you can find it and kill the mice with traps or how else you can Set your Bees about two foot above the ground or higher if need bee let their flight be to the South or Southward and set trees or other shelter not far from them to breake off the wind and let not the Sun shine hot upon the bare Hives for their worke will bee in danger to melt Neither need you to cloath or cover them the more for winter for the cold hurts them not ☜ Note this they must not be set too hot in the Sunne so they bee defended sure from the wet Therefore keepe the Hives whole and close so as two or three Bees may get in and out for in cold weather they lie close and sleep but spend not Set Goar Withies or Palm-trees neere them What trees and flowers to set neere them for that is the first of their gatherings Also Cherry-trees Plum and Peare and any fruit trees Also Rosemary Time Burrage Bugloss Balm and Violets Wall and stock-gilly-flowers Rockets and any other hollow bloome especially Beanes Pease Turnep and seed-Cabbage Also they gather much of Buck-wheat and Woad but both these are faint and foggy and overlade them and cause them to fall downe and perish Therefore at such time of the yeere lay salt under all your Hives within upon the stoole which will quicken your Bees and put vigour into them and make them the better able to labour When and how to put salt under them Doe the like at other times when you see your stocks that have hony in them to be lazy and dull but those that worke not being faint for want of hony must bee fed whether they bee stocke or swarme which how to doe I will hereafter show because many for want of skill how to feed them doe it to no purpose and besides spend more hony in doing it by a great deale than needs CHAP. 6. How to defend your Bees and preserve them from their enemies Keepe your Bees sweet and cleane and alway note and observe what enemies they have AS all Common-wealths are infested with some enemies sometimes many sometimes fewer so likewise is this Common-wealth of Bees Their great enemies are Hornets Swallows Titmice Martins and the like besides Waspes and robbing Bees their lesser are Emmets Spiders c. which I have spoken of before ☞ Were it not for the Hornet and the Swallow Waxe would be as cheape as tallow Therefore destroy the nests and breeding places of these vermine also the creatures themselves as oft as you can take them To take Hornets set lime-twigges before their holes if you cannot come at their nests to destroy them To take Wasps set glasses with wort or water sweetned with sweet fruit in it or a little sugar melted and dissolved in the water but sweet fruit is the best for feare of drowing the Bees for they will goe into any thing that hath hony in it Of Emmets and Mice I have spoken before also toads snailes spiders are noisome and hurtful to the Bee Spiders wil entangle and take them in their webs and venome them to death and suck out their honie therefore brush downe their webs and kill them Also robbing-Bees are great enemies ☜ Robbers and very frequent in the spring of the yeere and the fall of the lease which to prevent How to prevent them you must often prove whether your stocks have Bees enough to keep them out Those stocks which have not you must keepe the mouthes of their Hives closer so that few may get in If you find that the robbers be too strong for your stock and have made some great entrance thereinto presently stop up that stock though it bee at noon-day then in the even so that they may see to flie open the hole and let out the robbers and be sure to have ready in your hand some white flower or meale or lime or the like and sprinkle it on them as they come out thereby you shall know them as they flie and marke whether they flie to some of your owne stocks or to your neighbours for you shall see them presently flie home with the meale on their backes Which when you have found you may thus remedie Take a long knife or a dagger thrust it into the robbing stock about the middle of the Hive on both sides and so a little break their work This will make them leave robbing and fall to worke to make up their own breaches and this will doe the robbing stockes no hurt but rather good for they are commonly the fattest Bees which rob who have enough or too much already like those that are guided by sense and so
prepared hive over the uppermost hole and make a smoak without flame in the under hole putting it in and out too and fro and so you shall make the Bees to runne up into the hive then put a cloth over the hive and tye it round with a line and so bring it home If the Bees be newly gone in they will the sooner be gotten out but if they have bin there some time and have gotten good store of provision in the tree before you finde them then they will hardly and with much adoe leave it then your best way will be to cut it off which if it bee but an arme of a tree is easily done or if in the body of a tree where you can come at it cut above it and below it and being cut a rope being first fastened about it let it downe as gently as you can for feare of bruising and squatting then stop the holes or tye a cloth about them and bring them home and naile a board at the top to keepe out the water then set them in your garden or some other convenient place But now if there be no way to cut it downe or to save it then when it is fullest of hony take it which you may doe after this manner Cut an hole under it and take matches of brimstone set them on fire and put under them and stop the hole to keepe in the aire and vapour of the brimstone and this will kill them stone dead So may you take out the hony and waxe and make use of it How and when to drive full and fat stockes If the yeere bee such that many hony-dewes fall and your stockes prove so fat that they lie out and will not swarme then about the middest of July drive some of the fattest which you may doe thus In an evening take the fat and full Hive and set it upon a big joyned stoole or some other hollow frame with the mouth upward then take a prepared Hive being sprinkled with hony and set over it and bind a cloth round about them to keepe the Bees in then knock or rap the under Hive to make the Bees goe up to the empty Hive This doe often to move them and disturb them to make them run upward and if you can open or make an hole in the top of the under Hive and with a litle smoak under them you may drive them upward and so let them stand all night and in the morning if you by knapping perceive any Bees to remaine still in the under Hive then doe so againe till all or the most part be gone up then take the upper Hive and set it where the full stock stood and take out the combs of the driven Hive and put them into a pan or kettle and in taking out the combs shake or brush off the Bees if any remaine so will they goe to their old place to the new prepared Hive Experience will make you more perfect and readie in these things Be not fearefull but patient and gentle and in case of necessity over-rule your Bees by smoak and so you may doe about them whatsoever is fit but if by chance you are stung by them What to doe when you are stung by the Bees first pull out the sting presently then wet your finger often with spettle and apply to the place and keepe it wet and coole in the aire and then it will not smell Also if you rub the place with Mary-golds or hony or St. Johns wort is a good remedy unto some How to make Bees swarme If some stocks hang out somewhat long and are not willing to swarme to provoke them to swarme doe thus Raise up the Hive on that side where the Bees lie out about three or foure inches high and with a little smoake and also by stirring and moving them make them goe up into their Hive then let downe the Hive close againe to the stoole and rub the place where the Bees lay with elder May-weed or hemlock so will they abide in and in short time swarme But if this will not serve to make them swarme then drive those that are full and fat as is before shewed CHAP. 8. Wherein first is taught how to chuse for store Secondly how to helpe them that have too little and take from them that have too much Thirdly signes of the first swarming Fourthly how to recover Bees that are chilled with cold FOr choice of the best for store alway keepe them that have the fairest and the evenest work neither too fat nor too leane and full of Bees If a swarme bee very fat choose rather to keep an old one of a middle waight than that fat one choose one about three pecks or a bushell waight and not above for if their combs be all full of hony then they have no where to breed and will not swarme and may perish for want of Bees Now if your Bees bee too fat Feed the lean and take from them that are too fat and all their combs full of hony then at the spring of the yeere still your Bees and cut off the combs two or three in the middle a foot high so will they worke new and breed And if then you have any too poore and light then feed them as is before shewed Now in choosing your Bees for store if you find that their work is crumbling or crisping into small crumbs as big as a great pins-head then be sure those Bees are faulty or robbers or strange Bees haunt them or they dislike something And if your Bees bee kindly to swarme you may keepe them long though old and black for blacknesse is no fault so long as they bee sound If a stocke swarme and stand to health and so hold out healthfull for three yeeres I have knowne such stand eighteen or twenty yeeres Signes of the first swarme Now to direct you to know the first swarming of your Bees the signes are these The males or Drones will commonly play forth three or foure daies or more before they swarme and the Bees will play swarme-play and sometimes you may see the Queen come out and in before swarming Concerning the signes of second swarms I have before shewed by calling Bees and also how to put the late little swarmes together or else put them back into the stocke to preserve the stock which else may dye for want of Bees Now if notwithstanding all your care and diligence some prove light as under the weight of eighteen or twenty one pounds weight then when they have done gathering close them up fast with cow-dung and ashes mixt together or lime and haire which mice cannot gnaw Set poore stocks into the house in winter Bees eate not in winter and set them stoole and all into some cold dry place of your house or barne where they may be little sensible of the change or alteration of the ayre for as long as they stirre not they eate not
And this is the reason that they may not bee fed in cold winter but onely when they gather at the spring or summer cold Also keepe your Hives close in winter by putting stones at the mouth of the Hive to prevent mice from going in and open them wider or shut them up closer in the spring time according as the weather proves hotter or colder and according to the strength or weakenesse of your stocks Alwaies in snowie weather remember to shut up your Bees close in sunshine or else they will out and be drowned or chilled And sometimes in cold springs a poore swarme may bee starved or benummed before you are aware I once found two or three so benummed that none of them were able to stirre but sat as dead Bees How to recover chilled Bees Then made I an indifferent big fire before them and tooke them off their seares and turned them open against the fire and so the warmth recovered them and made them move then I sprinkled hony in among them and set them up and laid salt on their stooles within the Hives and then they came forth presently and went to worke so then I fed them a little every day and recovered them Also you must remember to bee very carefull in keeping hoggs or horses Be sure to keep cattell from them or any cattell from comming neere them to trouble them Once I knew a good Nag stung to death by them But if any trouble or disturbance chance and they prove very angry and cruell and unruly then make a great smoake among them and so they will quickly bee quiet and still againe Many things more I could have shewed concerning Bees but these I have here delivered are things of use and most needfull to be knowne How to take Bees Now when God hath blessed your labours and sent you store you may receive the benefit of your labour by selling or taking some And alwayes if any be over fat and their combs all filled with hony be sure to take them which to doe and how to make and order your hony and waxe is shewed in the next chapter CHAP. 9. Of making hony mead and wax How to take Bees TO take your Bees doe thus untwist an old rope or cord and of the severall liches cut peeces six or eight inches in length then melt Brimston in a pan or potsheard and dip the peeces of cord into it and wet it round as a candle then take some little tub or deepe bowle or else dig an hole in the ground and lay two sticks over it and then light or kindle your match and then put them on a short candle-stick or a peece of clay and set it into the bowle or hole and set the stock of Bees over it and keep in the aire round about the Hive with an old cloth and so the steeme or vapour of the brimston will kill the Bees stone dead How to make hony then take out the combs and brush off the Bees if any hang on and breake out the dead brood if any be then put all those combs that have hony in them into a pan or kettle and bruise them together and straine it through a thin cloth-bag or if you will have your hony very fine let it run through a sieve without crushing Now if your hony were gathered on good land in a good soile it will need no warming but if on course or clay land you must set it on the fire when it is strained and make it twice blood-warme then stirre it well and put it into the vessell where you intend to keepe it and after a while scum it and it will be candied Mead. How to make Mead. Now when you have taken as much hony out of your combs or pulse as you can doe then wash your puls with water made blood-warme and make your Mead with that And if you desire to have your Mead very good and strong make it so full of the hony that it will beare a hen-egge swimming as broad as a sixe pence on the top then set it over the fire and boyle it well and take the scum clean off then set it a clearing into a kive or tub two or three daies till it be cleare and then draw it off from the lees or grounds and put it up into a vessell but stop it not too close for the strength of it will teare the vessell in peeces Also if you will you may put in a bag of spices thereinto in boyling But now Metheglin how to make metheglin I purpose not to teach you for it is part of my present trading both hony and metheglin have an excellent vertue for many cures being moderately taken they doe remedy many diseases The good use of hony mead and metheglin They are especially good against a cold consumption or cold watery stomacke as also against divers other both inward outward diseases Also there may bee admirable Baths made of it and strange cures have beene done therewith it is proved in my own experience in salves both for old and new wounds that both wax and hony are very soveraigne Aches and itches I have holpen aches and strong itches in Bathes made of hony Once I had a friend had such a foule itch that hee was like a Leper then I tooke an empty wine Caske call'd a Pipe and tooke out one head and made a liquor of water and hony making it pretty strong with the hony and heat it as hot as my friend could indure to stand in it and put it into the Pipe and caused him to stand in it up to his neck a pretty while and this he did three daies one after another and was recovered as cleare as ever The like experience for aches If the Bath bee a little renewed with a little hony every day it is the better How to make wax In making wax you must put both your pulse and dry combs together into a kettle and put an indifferent quantity of water thereunto and make it boyle on the fire then take a thin cloth bag very strong or a haire bag and crush it as hard as you can and have seething water ready by you to put into the bag and to cast on the outside of the bag and wind it up close and crush and squeese it hard This doe three or foure times and the wax will come cleane away Then let it stand in the keelar or bowle till it be cold and then take up all the wax from the water and melt it again with a little water in the bottom to keep the vessell from burning and being melted put it into a pan or vessell of what size you think fit to make your cake or tren of wax but first annoint the vessell by the sides with a little hony or butter and so the wax will come clean off The singular use of wax in salves and chirurgery for cures both within and