1890 - Mr. Grabbe Has the Last Word

This is my last post on Grabbe and Perrine, as the Floating Apiary scheme seems to have evolved over the years from a nomadic herding of the bees into a simpler seasonal shifting of the apiary from northern summering grounds to southern locations in the winter.  I still wish there was more of a photographic record. 

I added some ads from this issue of The Bee-keepers Review; don't you like the sound of Dr. Tinker's Specialties?!

 THERE has been so much said in the Review by those who know a part and guess the remainder of the history of C. O. Perrine’s migratory expedition of 1878, that I feel it incumbent upon myself to set at rest many rumors, errors and misstatements made by misinformed correspondents.

First, it is conceded that the expedition was a financial failure.  A writer in the September No. of 1889, stated that “Mr. Perrine and Grabbe were taking things coolly in New Orleans when it was   of vital importance  that the expedition should be on its northward way.”

It is not in the nature of Mr. Perrine to take anything coolly. Industrious, energetic; the man who began the honey business in Chicago years since with a peddler’s basket on his arm, and worked up an annual sale of honey, maple syrup, etc., of about $300,000 yearly, displayed in the inception and promotion of the migratory expedition the same driving originality that had signalized his past. 

He had been preparing for the expedition for over a year. He had visited France, Italy, and other places abroad and at home, to consult with the most successful bee keepers; and in 1877, with faith in his own ability and ample capital, he made arrangements at New Orleans to solve the great problem of migratory beekeeping.   But for unforseen and unavoidable accidents and delays, that expedition would certainly have demonstrated the entire feasibility of Mr. Perrine’s theories. 

The plan was to be ready to leave New Orleans the last of March, when the bees had about completed storing surplus from the willow bloom, and, moving from thirty to forty miles per night, advancing with the blooming vegetation and foraging days, until the vicinity of St. Paul, Minn., would be reached, about sixty-five days later, foraging the entire voyage. Unfortunately the second bee-barge was not completed on time. It was not until May 14, about forty-five days late, that the two barges and tow started north' with about 800 colonies of bees on board. 

By this time the white clover was in bloom near St. Louis. About seventy miles above New Orleans there was a serious break down and some machinery had to be sent back to New Orleans for repairs. This caused a delay of several days. Near Baton Rouge several days more were lost by a break down. The resistance of the current, too, between the bluffs, was too great, and, as the tow boat was of inadequate power the barges were abandoned about 300 miles from New Orleans, the bees transferred to the steamboat and run up the river near St. Peters, Mo., about forty miles above St. Louis. The season being too far advanced, the bees were landed,  and a fair crop of honey gathered in the fall from Spanish needles.

The test was not a fair one, and the $20,000 sunk in the enterprise proved to Mr. Perrine, at least, that, with an early start and proper facilities, the enterprise would have been a success.

Since then I have been getting through from New Orleans from D. McKenzie, Camp Parapet, La., (near New Orleans), populous colonies. Several shipments being made during the month of May. The swarms are transferred to shipping cases, well ventilated, and they arrive here, in Libertyville, in about six days. The journey does not destroy unhatched brood, as I have had many cast large natural swarms about ten days after their arrival, and store some surplus honey from apple blossoms. All bees I have had shipped from New Orleans during the month of May have paid me about seventy five per cent over the bees wintered here in northern Ill.       With a good season here I can realize 100 per cent by the migratory system above the ordinary bee keeping in northern Illinois.

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., April 3, 1890.

Published in the Bee-keeper's Review.