BOOK IX. XV. 10-13 



Next the whole store of honey-combs must be 

 collected in the place where you intend to make the 

 honey, and the holes in the walls and windows must 

 be carefully daubed over, so that there may be no 

 passage for the bees which obstinately search as if 

 they were looking for lost wealth, and, if they track 

 down the honey, eat it up. Smoke must, therefore, 

 also be kindled of the same materials as before at the 

 entrance of the place to drive away those that are 

 trying to get in. Then those hives from which the 11 

 honey has been cut out, if they have combs lying 

 across the entrance, will have to be turned round, so 

 that the hinder parts in their turn become entrances ; 

 for in this way, the next time the honey is taken, the 

 old combs rather than the new will be removed, and 

 the waxen cells, which deteriorate as they grow 

 older, will be renewed. But if the hives happen to 

 be surrounded by walls and cannot be moved, we 

 must take care that the combs are cut out, sometimes 

 from the back and sometimes from the front. This 

 process will have to be carried out before the fifth 

 hour of the day and then repeated after the ninth 

 hour or else next morning. But whatever be the 12 

 number of honey-combs that are harvested, you 

 should make the honey on the same day, while they 

 are still warm. A wickerwork basket or a bag rather 

 loosely woven of fine withies in the shape of an in- 

 verted cone, like that through which wine is strained, 

 is hung up in a dark place, and then the honey-combs 

 are heaped in it one by one. But care must be taken 

 that those parts of the waxen cells, which contain 

 either young bees or dirty red matter are separated 

 from them, for they have an ill flavour and corrupt 

 the honey with their juice. Then, when the honey 13 



