Editing Langstroth hive (section)

== History ==
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2021}}
[[File:Langstroth Frames.jpg|thumb|A frame taken out of a Langstroth hive seen on the left of the picture]]
Before the dimensions of bee space were discovered, bees were mostly hived in [[Beehive (beekeeping)#Skeps|skeps]] (conical straw baskets) or [[Beehive (beekeeping)#Bee gums|gums]] (hollowed-out logs that approximated the natural dwellings of bees), or in box hives (a thin-walled wooden box with no internal structure).

In 1851, the Reverend [[L. L. Langstroth|Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth]] (1810–1895), a native of Philadelphia, noticed that when his bees had less than {{cvt|9|mm|frac=8|abbr=on}} but greater than {{cvt|6|mm|frac=8|abbr=on}} of space available in which to move around, they would neither build comb into that space nor cement it closed with propolis. This measurement is called bee space.

During the summer of 1851, Langstroth applied the concept to keeping the lid free on a top-bar hive, but in autumn of the same year, he realized that the bee space could be applied to a newly designed frame which would prevent the bees from attaching honeycomb to the inside of the hive box. Attaching comb to the hive wall was a difficulty with frameless designs, such as Dzierżon's frameless movable-comb hive (1835). US [[Patent]] 9300 was issued to Langstroth on October 5, 1852,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US9300A/en|title = Beehive}}</ref> and remained valid despite numerous attempts to challenge it based on its alleged use of [[prior art]].

Langstroth made many other discoveries in beekeeping and contributed greatly to the industrialization of modern beekeeping. Other inventors, notably [[François Huber]] in 1789, had designed hives with frames (the so-called {{lang|fr|leafe}} or book hive),<ref>Huber, François ''New Observations on the Natural History of Bees'', 1806. (English translation as published) Retrieved from transcribed copy at [http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm], 21 November 2011; scanned copy also available at [http://bees.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=bees;idno=5017286] as of 21 November 2011.</ref> but Langstroth's hive was a practical, movable frame hive, which overcame the tendency of the bees to fill empty spaces with comb and to cement smaller spaces together with [[propolis]]. In contrast to August von Berlepsch's frame-movable, side-opened hive (May 1852, Germany), Langstroth's hive was top-opened, as was the Bevan [[top-bar hive]] (1848, UK). These combined adaptations led to the Langstroth hive design being preferred by beekeepers over all others, and variations on his hive are used throughout the world.

Langstroth subsequently published a book called ''A Practical Treatise on the Hive and Honey-Bee'',<ref>Langstroth, L.L. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BvhEHX4rH8oC&q=intitle:The+intitle:Hive+intitle:and+intitle:the+intitle:Honey+intitle:Bee+inauthor:langstroth A Practical Treatise on the Hive and Honey-Bee]'', 1878</ref> nowadays commonly known as ''The Hive and the Honey Bee'' or, under the title with which it was re-issued in 2004, as ''Langstroth's Hive and the Honey-Bee: The Classic Beekeeper's Manual''. In this book, Langstroth described the proper dimensions and use of the modern beehive as we know it today. Langstroth's book went through several editions until about 1900, but in all of them, the hive that is illustrated is the same as the original design.