BOOK IX. XIV. 18-20 



allows it, the bees venture to go forth to their 

 pastures ; for after the spring equinox they are 

 already roaming about everywhere without hesita- 

 tion and plucking the produce of flowers which are 

 suitable for the production of their young and 

 carrying it into their dwellings. 



These are the principles which Hyginus recom- 

 mends for the most careful observation throughout 

 the seasons of the year, but Celsus makes the follow- 

 ing additions. He says that only in a few places are 

 conditions so favourable as to provide different foods 

 for the bees in winter and summer, and that, there- 19 

 fore, in places where suitable flowers are lacking after 

 the season of spring, the swarms ought not to be left 

 without being moved, but, when the spring foods are 

 consumed, they should be transferred to places which 

 can offer the bees a more liberal diet from the late- 

 flowering blossoms of thyme, marjoram and savory. 

 This, he says, is the practice both in the regions of 

 Achaia, where the bees are transferred to pastures 

 in Attica, and in Euboea, and also in the islands of 

 the Cyclades, when they are transferred from other 

 islands to Scyros, and likewise in Sicily, when they 

 are moved from the other parts of the island to Hybla. 20 

 The same writer says that the waxen cells are made 

 from flowers and the honey from morning dew, and 

 that, the pleasanter the material from which the wax 

 is made, the better the quality which the honey 

 acquires. He gives instructions to examine the 

 hives carefully before transferring them and to 

 remove honey-combs which are old and wormy 

 and falling to pieces, and to keep only a few and 

 these the best, so that as many as possible may be 

 made at the same time from the better flowers. He 



493 



