The Father of American Beekeeping

Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth was born at 106 South Front Street in Philadelphia on Christmas Day in 1810. He never lost his childhood curiosity for nature. The eldest son, Langstroth attended the preparatory school of the University of Pennsylvania and went on to become a Yale-trained tutor, educator, and minister; he achieved greatness in apiculture as a lecturer, writer, and inventor. His enthusiastic yet sound observations and forward-thinking innovations in that field have garnered him universal acclaim as The Father of American Beekeeping.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, beekeeping had been conducted in the same way as it had since history began. Hives were primitive in design, difficult to monitor for disease and honeycomb had to be cut out with much toil, waste and stickiness. Honeybee colonies were expendable and rarely survived the crude harvest procedure. In October of 1851, while living at the corner of Chestnut St. and 16^th, the former Schuykill Seventh St., in Philadelphia, Langstroth made the discovery that revolutionized beekeeping: the development of a practical hive with uniform interior spacing. He was the first to point out that if the inner parts of a hive were spaced 3/8 inches apart, bees would build regular, evenly-spaced combs; this “bee space” would permit frames with comb to be interchangeable and stackable. Such a hive could be opened, inspected, and reassembled without harm to the bees or their brood. On 5 October 1852, in Philadelphia, Langstroth received a patent for a moveable-frame hive design that, with just slight modifications made over the years, is now used globally. This invention changed beekeeping into a profitable occupation. Furthermore, modern agriculture depends on the Langstroth hive for widespread crop pollination by honeybees and the world reaps the benefit with increased food production. Langstroth also patented a honey extractor and was among the first to import the Italian honeybee, noted for its easy management. His manual, The Hive and the Honey-Bee, was first printed in 1853 and is acclaimed worldwide as a masterpiece of apiculture.

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