BOOK IX. XIV. 2-5 



the developed moths must be killed. These pests which 

 generally adhere to the honey-combs fall off, if you 

 mix ox's marrow with dung and, after setting the 

 mixture on fire, bring the smell of burning near 

 them. As a result of this precaution the swarms will 

 be strengthened during the period which we have 

 mentioned and will apply themselves to their work 

 with more vigour. 



But very great care must be taken by the man in 3 

 charge, who feeds the bees, when he must handle 

 the hives, that the day before he has abstained from 

 sexual relations and does not approach them when 

 drunk and only after washing himself, and that he 

 abstain from all edibles which have a strong flavour, 

 such as pickled fish and all the liquids which accom- 

 pany them, and also fi'om the acrimonious stench of 

 garlic and onions and all other similar things. On the 4 

 forty-eighth day after the vernal equinox, when the 

 rising of the Pleiads takes place about the 8th of May, 

 the swarms begin to increase in strength and number ; 

 but in the same period of days the swarms also which 

 contain few and sickly bees die off, and at the same 

 time in the extremities of the honey-combs bees are 

 born of larger size than the rest, which some'people 

 think are king-beec. Some writers among the 

 Greeks, however, call them oistroi"' from the fact 

 that they excite the swarms and do not allow them 

 any rest ; therefore they recommend that they should 

 be killed. 



From the rising of the Pleiads to the solstice, which 5 

 takes place at the end of June in about the eighth 

 degree of the Crab, the hives generally swarm. This 

 is a time at which they must be very strictly watched, 

 so that the young brood may not escape. Then, 



483 



