BOOK IX. xm. 10-13 



the wax which was laid upon the top as a kind of 

 covering for their holes. For if we transfer the 

 honey-combs when the brood has not come to 

 maturity, the young bees will die when they cease 

 to be kept warm. For they often die of a distemper 

 which the Greeks call phagedaina.'^ For since it is 11 

 the habit of bees to construct beforehand as many 

 cells as they think they can fill, it sometimes happens 

 that, when their waxen structures are finished, the 

 swarm, while it is roaming too far afield in search of 

 honey, is overwhelmed in the woods by sudden 

 showers and whirlwinds and loses most of the ordinary 

 bees. When this has happened, the few that remain 

 are not enough to fill the combs and then the empty 

 parts of the wax cells become rotten, and since diseases 

 gradually creep in, the honey becomes corrupted and 

 the bees, too, themselves die. To prevent this, either 12 

 the populations of two hives ought to be united, so 

 that they can fill the waxen cells which are still sound, 

 or, if a second swai'm is not available, we must remove 

 the honey-combs from the uninhabited parts, before 

 they go rotten, with a very sharp knife. For it is 

 very important also that a very blunt iron tool, be- 

 cause it does not easily penetrate, should not be 

 pressed with great force and dislodge the honey- 

 combs from their places ; for if this has happened, 

 the bees desert their abode. 



There is also this cause of mortality among bees 13 

 that sometimes very many flowers come up during 

 several continuous years and the bees are more eager 



" Pliny (N.H. XXVI. §11) says that this word has two mean- 

 ings, either (1) a rodent cancer or (2) voracious hunger. The 

 first is certainly the meaning here. 



^^ hebes (Sac : hsihes A. 



479 



