APPENDIX.
TESTIMONIALS OF THE PRESS.
GREAT EXHIBITION, 1851.
HE "Working Apiary" in the Great Exhibition of 1851 will long live in the remembrance of the many thousand visitors who witnessed with much interest the matchless industry of its busy occupants.
We extract the following from many notices that appeared in the public journals relative thereto.
In noticing the hives exhibited in the Crystal Palace, I would say, first and foremost, in my opinion, stands Mr. Taylor's Eight-bar Hive and Messrs. Neighbour, and Son's Improved Cottage Hive, both exhibited by Messrs. Neighbour.—J. H. Payne, see "Cottage Gardener," Nos. 169, 170.
From the "Illustrated London News."
Messrs. Neighbour's Apiary consists of a large glass case, with parts of the sides covered with perforated zinc for the sake of ventilation. This apiary contains three hives: first, Neighbour's Ventilating Box-Hive, containing from 15,600 to 20,000 bees, which were hived on the 30th of April of the present year, the day before that of the opening of the Great Exhibition; Neighbour's Observatory Glass-Hive, containing about the same number as the box-hive; and a two-storied square box-hive, with sloping roof. From this latter, however, the bees decamped within a week after they had been hived, owing to some disturbance, or perhaps to the dislike taken by the bees to their new habitation. The Ventilating Box-Hive is in shape square, having windows and shutters. The entrance is at the back, enabling the bees to go to Kensington Gardens, or other resorts, when they please. Above the wooden box is placed a bell-glass, into which the bees ascend to work through a circular opening in the top of the square box. In the top of the bell-glass is an aperture, through which is inserted a tubular trunk of perforated zinc to take off the moisture from within. The Observatory Hive is of glass, with a superior crystal compartment, an opening being formed between the two; the bees are at present forming a comb in this upper glass, which affords a very interesting sight, as, generally speaking, the bees are in such a cluster when at work, that one can scarcely view their mathematically-formed cells. A straw cover is suspended over the upper compartment by a rope over a pulley, which cover is raised up by the attendant at pleasure. The larger or bottom compartment rests on a wooden floor, which has a circular groove sinking therein to receive the bell-glass. A landing place projecting, as usual, with sunken way, to enable the bees to pass in and out of their habitation, completes this contrivance.