A theatre of politicall flying-insects. Wherein especially the nature, the worth, the work, the wonder, and the manner of right-ordering of the bee, is discovered and described / Together with discourses, historical, and observations physical concerning them. And in a second part are annexed meditations, and observations theological and moral, in three centuries upon that subject. By Samuel Purchase.

Samuel Purchas

Date:: 1657

Credit: A theatre of politicall flying-insects. Wherein especially the nature, the worth, the work, the wonder, and the manner of right-ordering of the bee, is discovered and described / Together with discourses, historical, and observations physical concerning them. And in a second part are annexed meditations, and observations theological and moral, in three centuries upon that subject. By Samuel Purchase. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$flopping „ which will caufe them To much to miflike their Hivc} that jn Autumn they will yeeld to the robbers, And if by your care and watchfulnefs they bee then preferred, in Februtrj following,when the breeding time begins, finding their wombs barren, and therefore loathing themfelves,they yeeld their goods to them that will take it, and.aftera while by converting with the ftrange Bees, like of their company, and go away with them to their D:oner« But every fair day they will with them return to fetch that they left behinde. H Thirdly , becaule every living thing doth breed male and female of his kinde, and experience doth teach us, that the Bees do yearly breed as well Drones as honey Bees; and fee- ing the honey Bees are females, it followcth neceflarily, that the Drones are the males of the fame kinde: And therefore the Drone in the learned languages hath his rtiafculine appella¬ tion, as the. honey Bee her feminine. Fourthly, wee fee the like in the likeft Infeds, the Wafps, Hornets, and Humble-Bees, of which in their proper places. J Fifthly, laddethe Drones are males, and the honey Bees females, becaufe of the fmalnefs of their voycc, which is al- way.es (mailer, and fhriller in females than males^except Cows, which bellow lewder than Bulls. • J When the old Bees have ended their firft brood ©f females) then lafl of all after the fame manner, firft in the Drone combe, which is one, and butf one in every Hive, and almoft the Htsi. Nat hi ft. backwardeft,. made with deeper and wider cells for the nonce, 1 *• they breed the male Bees, or Drones-, as was long fince ob* lerved. * w » aJH in the latter part of the year they hreed feme promifeu* with the Nymphs, but then, they elevate their co- VerS, . '■'/:] , That not many are y bred before Mid-May, not anv before, Mid-April ( except a few by chance which are not fuffered to hive) as Mr. Bialtr afferts, is not fo ; for there are fome in all 1 warms, and fome flecks (with us) fwarm by Mid-April, therefore muft.the breeding of many of the Drones beetbeo ftaifhed. And after a Hive hath fwarmed, though before you, law not one. Atift.de feR Anim.lib.4, crp I I.. \$

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