The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1865]: Being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management, with full directions, adapted for the cottager, farmer, or scientific apiarianNeighbor, Alfred
Science
The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1865]: Being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management, with full directions, adapted for the cottager, farmer, or scientific apiarian
The engraving represents our stand in the Agricultural Department of
the International Exhibition of 1862. The space granted us in the
World's great Fair was somewhat limited; but we were able to exhibit
a tolerably complete stock of apiarian apparatus and all the more
important bee-hives. Amongst these was a Unicomb Hive stocked with
the Yellow Alpine or "Ligurian" bee. This was an object of great
attention, and daily hundreds of visitors flocked round our stand in
order to watch the movements of the Italian queen with her gay and busy
subjects. The entrance way for the bees being in the "Open Court," to
which all visitors had access, it was necessary to place the hive in an
elevated position, so as for it to be beyond the reach of incautious
passers by, and to obviate any chance of annoyance to the vast crowds
of people continually around.
Among others who took a deep interest in our exhibition, was Mr. Edward
Wilson, President of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria. This
gentleman requested us to pack four stocks of the Ligurian bees for
conveyance to Melbourne. With the assistance of Mr. Woodbury--whose
aid was, indeed, essential--these stocks were sent off on the 25th of
September, 1862, by the steam ship Alhambra, so as to arrive at the
colony during the Austral summer. The hives were Woodbury-frame hives,
having ample space and ventilation, as well as the means of supplying
water to their inmates during the voyage; there was, also, a sufficient
store of honey to last until the following March. The bees arrived at
Melbourne, where they were released after an imprisonment of seventy
nine days, and have since rapidly multiplied, the climate and pasturage
of Australia greatly favouring the increase of this superior variety of
the bee.
Mr. Wilson was so well pleased with the careful manner in which these
stocks were fitted out for their voyage across the seas, that he
subsequently instructed us to prepare him three more hives, which were
sent out in a sailing vessel. Owing to the mismanagement of the water
supply during the voyage, only one stock survived in this instance.
Upwards of twenty years ago, we sent a Nutt's Hive stocked with bees
to New Zealand. We then adopted the plan of fixing the hive in a meat
safe, so that the bees could fly about a little, and also cleanse
the hive of their dead, for bees are very attentive to sanitary
arrangements; they always remove the dead ones from their midst, and do
not void excrement within the hive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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