Forms: α. north. and Sc. 6, 9 stale, 9 staill; β. 6–8 stall, 6–7 stal. [Prob. related to STADDLE sb.] A hive of bees; a ‘stock’ of bees in or for a hive; also, a bee-hive. (Cf. STALLER3.)
α. 1505. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., III. 159. Item, to the gardinar of Linlithgw to by viij stales of beis, viij Franch crounis.
1588. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), II. 312. iij wynter stales of bees, and the planck, 12s and empty hyyes 4d.
1808. Jamieson, s.v. Stale, Staill, or adj. staill skep of bees, S. denominated perhaps as being the principal skep, or mother-hive.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., 94. A bee-man lang the chiel had been, Keep’d mony a winter stale.
β. 1531. Elyot, Gov. (1534), 7 b. For if … the bees may issue out of theyr stalles, with out peryl of raine … in the mornynge erely he callethe them.
1531. in Weaver, Wells Wills, 139. A stall of beyes.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., iii. § 23. Moue them not without urgent occasion: for often lifting vp the hiue … doth discourage the stall.
1670. J. Smith, Eng. Improv. Reviv’d, 180. On or at the North-west side of the Physick-garden … is built a Bee-house to contain 200 Stals, Stools, or Hives of Bees.
1743. Wesley, in Wks. (1872), XIII. 179. They destroyed five stalls of bees.
