BOOK IX. XIV. 15-18 



feathers ; furthermore, if the stock of food is used 

 up, they can very well feed on these birds, if they 

 are hungry, and leave nothing but the bones. But 

 if the honey-combs supply their needs, the birds 

 remain untouched, nor do they offend the bees with 

 their odour, fond though they are of cleanliness. It 

 is better, however, in our opinion, when they are 

 suffering from hunger in the winter time, to provide 

 them with dried figs pounded and soaked in 

 water or with boiled-down must or raisin-wine placed 

 in little troughs at the very entrance to the hives ; 

 and it will be advisable to soak clean wool in these 

 liquids, so that the bees, settling upon it, may draw 

 up the juice as through a small pipe. We shall also 16 

 do well to give them raisins sprinkled a little with 

 water after we have broken them up. With these 

 foods they must be sustained not only in winter but 

 also at those seasons, when, as we said just now, 

 spurge and also elms are in blossom. When the 17 

 height of winter is passed, for a period of about forty 

 days, they use up all the honey which is stored, unless 

 an unusually generous allowance is left, and often 

 too, after they have emptied the waxen cells, they 

 lie fasting in the honey-combs in a torpid condition, 

 like snakes, until about the rising of Arcturus, which 

 is on the 13th of February, and by keeping quiet 

 preserve the breath of life ; in order, however, that 

 they may not lose it, if too long a fast occurs, it is best 

 to pour sweet liquids through the entrance of the 

 porch by means of small pipes and thus support them 

 during the temporary scarcity until the rising of 

 Arcturus and the coming of the swallow with promise 

 of more favourable weather for the future. And so, 18 

 after this time, when the more cheerful weather 



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