THE FAERY YEAR 



what I took for a dead bee lying on the alighting 

 board. Several hours later I examined this bee, 

 and found that in the warmth of my hand she began 

 to revive. This explains the old superstition of the 

 English bee-master that dead bees could be brought 

 to life by warmth. I have the fourth edition (1720) 

 of a scarce book called " The True Amazons : or, 

 The Monarchy of Bees, being a New Discovery 

 and Improvement of those Wonderful Creatures." 

 It is by Joseph Warder, of Croydon. Warder was 

 a physician, yet he believed in dead bees brought 

 to life. In " How to raise Dead Bees to Life " he 

 declares that hundreds of times he has done this. 

 He prefers the gradual warmth of the hand to 

 fiercer heat, and you are to "take care you 

 bruise them not, lest they sting you." The bees, 

 returning to their hive after a fruitless journey in 

 January, will, he says, drop in the grass to rest 

 themselves before entering ; or they will settle on 

 the wood of the hive, palpitating, wearied ; for they 

 are quite out of training for flight at this time of 

 year. It is then the cold and wet overcome them. 

 Warder's practice was to pick up the dead bees 

 beneath and about the hive and hold them in his 

 hand, twenty or thirty at a time. In less than a 

 quarter of an hour they were recalled to life and 

 ready to fly to the hive ! " By this means I have 

 saved the lives, or, rather, raised from the dead, 

 many thousands of Bees." But he had other 

 methods when the dead bees within the hive were 

 too numerous to hold in the hand : " I have taken 



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