In addition to Mr. Neighbour's Crystal Apiary, he also exhibits a Cottager's Straw Hive, Taylor's Amateur Bee-Hive, a Glass Hive, Nutt's Patent Collateral Hive, the Ladies' Observatory Hive, Neighbour's Improved Cottage Hive, and Payne's Cottage Hive.
The Cottager's Hive is simply that of the form we find in use in most parts of the country, where the industrious cottagers or their wives, by a little attention to their interesting little labourers, are enabled to add something to their usually scanty earnings. This kind of hive is usually made of straw, resting on a circular wooden board, with part of the board or floor projecting in front as a landing-place for the bees, which enter under the edge of the straw by means of a sinking in the floor.
Taylor's Amateur's Bee-Hive consists of three small square boxes, one above another, with a roof over the top story, the ventilation being effected by perforations under the eaves; each side of every story has a window and shutter. The landing-place is in front of the bottom story, and the entrance to the hive is a long slit about three-quarters of an inch high.
The Glass Hive, or Ladies' Observatory Hive, is similar to that in which the bees are at work in Mr. Neighbour's Apiary already mentioned, but on account of the number of bees at work therein, and the extent of comb already effected, the interior perches cannot be seen. These wooden perches are arranged in parallel lines, leaving a space next the glass all round, the whole being framed together with a bar at right angles, and resting on an upright support in the middle.
The Improved Cottage Hive of the same exhibitor consists of a straw circular lower compartment, having windows and outside shutters. A thermometer is placed just inside one of the windows. The floor is of wood, with a landing-place and sunken way, as already mentioned in some of the other hives. In the top, which is also of wood, are three circular perforations, each of about two inches in diameter, above which are placed as many bell-glasses. There is a small hole in the top of each of the glasses, through which a perforated tubular trunk is inserted for the sake of taking off the moisture from the interior of the hive. Within the glass is a feeding-trough of zinc, circular in shape, with a floating perforated floor, on which the bees alight, and in the winter season regale themselves with the honey which is found in the various perforations, as it floats up to the level of the honey contained in the small filling-trough, through which the honey, or beer and sugar, is poured. The glasses are covered with a straw cap, removable at pleasure.
Messrs. Neighbour's contributions are completed with tin perforated fumigators, by the use of which the bees are stupefied for a while, when required to be moved from one hive to another, and specimens of honey and honeycomb of the season 1850.
From the "Express."
Bees and Bee-Hives.—In the North-East Gallery, directly under the Transept, are arranged, by Messrs. Neighbour, of Holborn, several descriptions of bee-hives, which it will be interesting to many of our readers to examine, as this branch of rural economy is claiming much general and deserved attention throughout the country. The novelty of these hives consists in the facilities that are afforded in taking therefrom, at any time of the gathering season, the purest honey, without destroying or even injuring the bees, thus humanely superseding the barbarous and hateful system of murdering these interesting insects to obtain the produce of their industry.
Immediately adjoining the group of untenanted bee-hives may be observed living hives with the bees most industriously at work. These useful little creatures have been highly honoured by the Executive Committee, for of all the animal workers that contribute to the interest of the Exhibition, they alone are allowed therein to display their matchless ingenuity and skill. By a simple contrivance, the bees are allowed egress and ingress without in the least degree molesting the visitors, thus enabling the admirers of the works of nature to view the whole process of forming the cells and depositing the honey therein.
Within these few days, Messrs. Neighbour have added to the Apiary a bee-hive constructed entirely of glass, protected by a cover neatly made of straw, but so contrived that on application to the attendant it can be removed instantly, thus illustrating more particularly the curious workmanship of these amusing insects.