The meaning and origin of the expression: As busy as a bee

As busy as a bee

What's the origin of the phrase 'As busy as a bee'?

From Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, (the Squire's Tale), 1386-1400:

Ey! Goddes mercy!” sayd our Hoste tho,
Now such a wyf I pray God keep me fro.
Lo, suche sleightes and subtilitees
In wommen be; for ay as busy as bees
Be thay us seely men for to desceyve,
And from a soth ever a lie thay weyve.
And by this Marchaundes tale it proveth wel.

"See other 'as x as y similes'.