122 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



PERRINE'S FLOATING APIARY. 



THE FIRST FLOATING APIARY ON THE AMERICAN 

 CONTINENT. 



SI PROMISED to g'ive you some description of my 

 bee boats, &c., &c., and will now do so, but par- 

 I don me if it i^i not full enoug-h, as I have only a 

 few hours each evening- to attend to my correspond- 

 ence, having- to look to my apiarian interests throug-h 

 the day. 



I bouprht two gainwale barges, each about 110.Y34 

 ft. and decked them over 7 ft. from each side inward- 

 ly lea\'ing- 10 ft. open space, deck about 5 ft. from 

 bottom, roof over open space about 7 ft. high form- 

 ing a cabin, thus making roof 2 ft. above deck. I first 

 have a space at each side of boat, on deck, of 3 ft. for 

 outer gallery, to pass before the bee hiv^es, then 2 ft. 

 space for the hives, then 3 ft. space behind the hives 

 for inner gallery; this takes up the 7 ft. There are 6 

 tiers of bee hives, one above the other. I have an 

 upper outer and inner gallery 7 ft. above the deck, 

 from which we are to work the upper 3 tiers of 

 hives. 



This describes the outer tiers of hives; the inner, 

 start from the top of the cabin roof and are .'5 tiers 

 high. The back end of the hives are flush with the 

 cabin roof, or say the eaves, so that the inner gal- 

 lery of 3 ft., spoken of, is between the backs of the 

 outer and inner hives allowing both tiers to be 

 worked conveniently between the fronts of the inner 

 tiers of hives. There is 6 ft. space all the way up to 

 the top of the boat, 13'/4 ft. high, and this space is 

 not roofed, allowing the bees to fly freely up and 

 down through this space to and from their hives. 

 The outer tiers of hives allow of free horizontal 

 flight of bees. There is a roof 14 ft. high at the eaves, 

 over the whole boat, except the 6 ft. space running 

 through the middle. The arrangement at the ends 

 is the same as at sides with tritlihg variation. 



The whole structure is svipported by over 300 

 stanchions running from the bottom of boat to roof 

 firmly secured by spikes, bolts and braces through 

 stringer and carling. The hives are placed, as it 

 were, on shelves firmly secured and easily removed. 

 The hives are not perfectly shielded from sun and 

 rain on the outside tiers, but rain will not hurt them 

 and the sun can onlv strike the fronts; and as I have 

 nailed on upper half of the space of the porticoes 

 wire cloth and door to confine the bees below this, 

 which when opened covers over the wire cloth and 

 shields the f rort from the rays of sun, I have little 

 to fear from the sun. 



Each boat will hold over 900 swarms under cover, 

 and if I choose, I can put a few on the roof, making 

 it over 1000. 



I have now between 400 and 500, I will buy a few 

 hundred swarms here and a little further up the riv- 

 er, which in all, with my own swarms, will give me 

 by the middle of April— the time I propose to start 

 up the ri\-er— about 1200 hives, or 600 on each boat. 

 I expect to have, at least, fifty per cent increase go- 

 ing up the river. I am not counting on too big 

 things. 



I hope to reach St. Louis early in June, and will 

 continue my trip, arriving at St. Paul, Minn., about 

 the last of July. 



Bees are now and have been working on the differ- 

 ent ^'arieties of willow, so abundant in swamps in 

 the South, ever since early in February, and will 

 continue to do so, with some other tree bloom for a 

 month yet, say 8 to 10 weeks on willow, and working 

 hard every day they can get to work. 



Bees are all in good order in my apiary and have 

 just begun to swarm. Of course some are stronger 

 than others, the strongest have gathered within the 

 past 10 or 12 days, 30 to 50 lbs. of honey, some in sec- i 

 tions and some in large frames for extracting, and 

 this before swarming time, with hives not full of h&'s. 

 Four to 6 lbs. of honey per day is pretty good I think, I 

 and such beautiful honey too, not strictly white nor 

 of a high boquet. but a smooth pleasant honey some- 

 what like peach bloom honey. Now and then some 

 ona objects to a slightly bitter aft'^r taste that is no- 

 ticed when the honey is eaten by itself, but at table 

 it is not noticed. It wear» better than any honev I 

 ever ate or gave to friends. 



I expect to work on willow for the first 600 or 800 

 miles, and perhaps get some white clover for a short 

 time about the last of Mav or first of .Tune, and to 

 wait for basswood which I expect to follow from b'> 

 low Cairo to St. Paul, nearly 1000 miles and nearlv 

 two months. Those who know what basswood yields, 



can perhaps imagine my expectations as to quantitv 

 to be gathered by my then 2j)00 hi\'e3 of bees. 



My intention is to return from St. Paul to some 



point above St. Louis and stay during Aug. and Sept.. 



returning south in October, when I think I have a 



reasonable exnectation of having 3000 to 4000 hives 



of bees, probably more than were ever managed b>- 



one person. 



I will have a good tow boat of my own so as to con- 



' trol its movements. I will do my moving at night, 



j stopping every day, probably, as it would not do to 



1 lose a day of work. 



1 In my experiments, labor and purchases, I have 

 I spent money liberally— nearly $15,000 since I first 

 I came down here^andif I succeed in demonstrating 

 I the practicabilitv of a floating apiary will you feel 

 j badly because I have made some money in the honey 

 I business in years past so as to be able to take a lit- 

 i tie monev from my business to do this? But sup- 

 pose 1 fail, will you say "foolish man. I could have 

 told him so?" or will you give me credit for the 18 

 months of unremitting toil of brain and muscle, and 

 try to encourage me to try another season to make a 

 success of it? 



Towing boat by steam— up stream, is expensive: 

 one party proposes to tow me up to St. Paul and back 

 to New Orleans for $6000.00 but 1 can do it much, 

 cheaper owning a steam boat myself, perhaps for 

 half that sum. 



There will be a crew of 15 or 16, or perhaps 20 per- 

 sons on the fleet, and as I expect to accompany the 

 enterprise, "Commodore Perrine" as some of my 

 friends here insist on calling me, will have bis 

 hands full. 



We are extracting from nearly 100 hives, and shall 

 ship to Chicago, in a few days, between 3 and 3 tons 

 of txtracted and section box honey, and soon after- 

 ward, a shipment to Europe where my customers 

 are awaiting netV honey with their mouths open. 



Mr. Fred (Srabbe formerly of Kansas and Illinois, 

 has been with me over a year, and has the immediate 

 management of the bees, a man of large experience, 

 practical, energetic and an untiring worker. 



I can not close without a word about the pleasant 

 winters here — no snow — a few frosts, a little show 

 of ice once or twice during the season, not too much 

 rain, and in February flowers: and now all in full 

 bloom, and to crown all, the air is now full of con- 

 densed orange bloom; some 20 trees about my house 

 fill all space with their fragrance. 



Well, I have written more than I thought I would. 

 If your readers don't understand my description, or 

 have curiosity to see, I hope to see all who will take 

 the pains to come to see us any where along the riv- 

 er. Will try to keep them posted where to find the 

 boats as we go along. C. O. Perrine. 



New Orleans, La., March 20th, 1878. 



Many thanks, friend P., but have yon not 

 "mixed" something? somewhere, when you 

 intimate that I might feel badly if you 

 should succeed, and say, "I told you so,'' if 

 you should fail V I fear you did not read 

 what I said about floating apiaries a couple 

 of years ago, when I asked who would lirst 

 volunteer the money for the experiment. If 

 anybody attempts to say "I told you so," 

 Gleanings will be the very first one to 

 square off for a fight — a friendly one — for 

 whether you make a success of it or not, I 

 am sure some one will. We certainly are as 

 smart as the ancient Egyptians oil bees, 

 even if we never did build any pryamids, 

 and now friend Perrine I want you to get 

 just the very best photo of your fioating api- 

 ary, that ever you can, and we will get the 

 best engraver in the country to engrave it 

 for May Gleanings. I do not believe in 

 saying very much about what great things 

 we are going to do, for it is much better to 

 do thein first and then tell about it ; but I 

 hope Ave may both be excused a little this 

 time. 



I wiIjTj pay 15c for black queens and sell them IVir 

 35c until further notice. Purity (?) and safe arrival 

 guaranteed. These will be nice to practice with. 



