176 First Frame Hives. 



Dzierzon adopted the bar hive in 1838, In this hive each 

 comb had to be cut loose as it w^as removed. It is strange 

 that Mr. Cheshire speaks of Dzierzon's hive in connection 

 with the Langstroth. It was a different type of hive 

 entirely. 



THE LANGSTROTH HIVE. 



In 1851 our own Langstroth, without any knowledge 

 of what foreign apiarian inventors had done, save what he 

 could find in Huber, and edition 1838 of Bevan, invented 

 the hive (Fig. 59) now in common use among the advanced 

 apiarists of America. It is this hive, the greate'st apiarian 

 invention ever made, that has placed American apiculture 

 in advance of that of all other countries. What practical 

 bee-keeper of America could agree with H. Hamet, edition 

 1 86 1, p. 166, who, in speaking of the DeBeauvoys hive, 

 says that the improved hives were without value except to 

 the amateur, and inferior for practical purposes? Our 

 apiarists not native to our shores, like the late Adam 

 Grimm, Mr. C. F. Muth and Mr. Charles Dadant, always 

 conceded that Mr. Langstroth was the inventor of this hive, 

 and always proclaimed its usefulness. Well did the late 

 Mr. S. Wagner, the honest, fearless, scholarly, and truth- 

 loving editor of the early volumes of the American Bee 

 Journal, himself of German origin, say: "When Mr. 

 Langstroth took up this subject, he well knew what Huber 

 had done, and saw wherein he had failed — failing, possibly, 

 only because he aimed at nothing more than constructing 

 an observatory hive suitable for his purposes. Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's object was other and higher. He aimed at making 

 frames movable, interchangeable, and frnctically service- 

 able in bee culture." And how true what follows : '■'■Nobody 

 before Mr. Langstroth ever succeeded in devising a mode 

 of making and using a movable frame that was of any 

 practical value in bee culture." No man in the world, 

 besides Mr. Langstroth, was so conversant with this whole 

 subject as was Mr. Wagner. His extensive library and 

 thorough knowledge made him a competent judge. 



Mr. Langstroth, though he knew of no previous inven- 

 tion of frames contained in a case, when he made his inven- 



