Tom Chester <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I have been looking through the 1853 edition of Langstroth's book,
> _The Hive and the Honeybee_,  but have not been able to find any
>specific mention of bee space. Does he discuss his discovery in
>that book, and, if so, where?
 
The bee space concept was known before Langstroth's 1852 bee hive invention.
Huber, Prokopovitch, Dzierzon, the Greeks and others were using movable
frame hives that suggest some understanding of a "proper space" before
Langstroth.  However, none of these earlier hives were as practical as
Langstroth's hanging-frame hive.  Langstroth's bee hive used the bee-space
concept to a clever and practical advantage, but it is not accurate to say
that he discovered the bee space.
 
In a later edition of Langstroth's book (1884), he writes:
  "The use of the Huber hive had satisfied me, that with proper precautions
the combs might be removed without enraging the bees, and that these insects
were capable of being tamed to a surprising degree.  Without knowledge of
these facts, I should have regarded a hive permitting the removal of the
combs, as quite too dangerous for practical use...."
    "One thing, however, was still wanting.  The cutting of the combs from
their attachments to the sides of the hive, was attended with much loss of
time both to myself and the bees.  This led me to invent a method by which
the combs were attached to movable frames, so suspended in the hives as to
touch neither the top, bottom, nor sides.  By this device the combs could be
removed at pleasure, without any cutting, and speedily transferred to
another hive."   (page 15)
 
The hive dimensions in Langstroth's book support a good bee-space, and his
"Bee-keeper's Axioms" show an extraordinary understanding of bees.
 
A page related to this general subject is on my web site, in the Beekeeping
History section at
http://home.earthlink.net/~jcaldeira/beekeeping/
 
-John
 
John Caldeira                [log in to unmask]
Dallas, Texas, USA