1879 - Photo of Frederick Grabbe's Floating Apiary

Until I found this brief news note in the American Bee Journal from November 1878 I had no idea Mr. Perrine's story was linked to "another" American floating apiary story I was going to post, one about Mr. Frederick Grabbe.  


Mr. C. O. Perrine, proprietor of the floating apiary, returned to Chicago last month— also his managing bee-keeper, Mr. F. Grabbe. The St. Charles Review, of Oct. 19th, says:

 "The apiary (of 600 colonies) is at present located in Calhoun County, Illinois, near the bank of the river, and will remain there till the last of November, or until the yellow fever subsides. 

The bees will then be loaded on barges and moved down the river to the vicinity of New Orleans, where they can begin work upon the soft maple and the willow blossoms, the latter part of January. Early in the spring the barges will be started up the river again. 

The design is to travel nights and lay by during the day for the bees to gather honey—the object being to keep the apiary among perpetual flowers throughout the season."

Frederick Grabbe's own floating apiary story I found at the 51st Regiment Illinois Volunteers web site (read their info).  It is the only photograph I turned up of a barge being used as a floating apiary!  

Fred Grabbe also was the Business Manager of the American Bee Journal under the Editor Rev. W. F. Clarke which places the date at 1873-1874.  In 1882 he is noted as being a great believer in the superiority of the Louisiana willows for over northern varieties, although he was in the employ at this time of C. O. Perrine who was puffing his southern willow honey.

http://51stillinois.org/grabbe.html

Grabbe was another one of the entrepreneurs that make interesting reading.  He hooked up early in his career with a gentleman who had money and they had fun starting businesses!  

I found a nice essay about them on the Libertyville, Illinois library site.  M. M. Baldridge, also from Libertyville, wrote into the The Bee Keepers' Review, 1889-

"In reading the Review on Migratory Bee Keeping, I was somewhat surprised to notice that you had nothing therein from F. Grabbe who now lives at Libertyville, Illinois, and who had more to do with the Perrine enterprise than any one else, aside from Perrine himself. 

Mr. Perrine engaged Mr. Grabbe to help him in the fall of 1876, I think, and kept him' more or less employed with the bees until the spring of 1880.   He was in charge of the barges of bees at the time friend Balch joined them, with the bees in his charge, at Vicksburg. It was at my suggestion that Perrine first employed Grabbe and after I had refused to work for him."

Frederick Grabbe may have had the entrepreneurial spirit like Mr. Perrine, but Grabbe also seems to have had commonsense and beekeeping experience.  Perinne must have driven him nuts!