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1532 in J. E. Binney Accts. of Wardens of Morebath 1520–73 (1904) 48 Sche dyde be quesse a butt of beys.

1571 T. Fortescue tr. P. Mexia Foreste ii. xx. f. 108 A certaine multitude of Bees, chaste out of a greate citie, all the inhabitantes thereof, vsyng their houses, in steede of Buttes, or Hiues.

1655 W. Mewe in S. Hartlib Reformed Common-wealth Bees 48 If there were a Statute for Parish Bees, as well as Parish Butts, and Parochial Appiaries design'd for those places, where observed best to thrive.

1772 Middlesex Jrnl. 3 Apr. He had..six butts of bees, which produced honey and wax to the amount of six pounds.

1787 F. Grose Provinc. Gloss. Butt, a bee-butt or hive. Exmore.

1849 Bristol Mercury 8 Sept. 8/4 Early on Saturday morning some thieves burned three butts of bees and carried away the produce.

1864 Royal Cornwall Gaz. 14 Oct. 6/6 In the month of May last he had six hives of bees, one of which ‘swarmed’, the swarm being secured in a butt.

1911 W. Crossing Folk Rhymes Devon 63 A butt of bees in May, Is worth a guinea any day; A butt of bees in June, Is worth a silver spoon; A butt of bees in July, Isn't worth a fly.

1944 H. Best Young'un xvii. 193 Not a bee was a-wing, not one. But when she drew near to the line of bee-butts Taverner stood up from behind one.

1996 M. Youmans Catherwood 146 The muddy houses, a brindled cow scraping her backside against a rocking fence. A barton. Straw bee-butts.