In the early 1850s, Philadelphia-born beekeeper Lorenzo Langstroth developed a hive with removable frames, making honey harvesting easier; his design remains widely used today

Imagine a Reverend from Massachusetts who becomes so fascinated by his backyard bees that he looks into an empty hole in a wooden box and has a lightbulb moment. This is essentially what Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, a Philadelphia-born minister, did in 1851. He discovered that honeybees would leave a space of approximately one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch in their hives. This space allowed the bees to move around but was too small to fill with wax or propolis. He coined this ‘bee space,’ and it transformed an entire industry. By creating a hive with movable frames and bee space, Langstroth could remove honeycomb without damaging it, according to a 2013 Smithsonian Magazine account. These frames were designed around this single measurement. Whilst this seems like a small change to the wooden box, it is why nearly every beekeeper today, from large-scale commercial operations to small backyard hobbyists, uses some form of this design.

The frame that changed the world

Before Langstroth's design, beekeeping was an extremely destructive practice. Because beekeepers couldn't lift frames of honey out of a hive without tearing the comb apart, they often destroyed the comb itself, and sometimes the whole colony along with it. According to the same 2013 Smithsonian Magazine account, Langstroth had his insight and built his first hive using the bee-space principle in 1851; he patented the design in 1852, and the following year, in 1853, he published a book titled "Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee." This book is still in print today.

His design allowed beekeepers to easily extract honey from a hive. It also allowed beekeepers to check on their bees and manage them. This created a hive that allowed bees to be moved and set the foundations for the pollination economy. As per the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the Langstroth hive is still used today, with approximately 75% of beehives being based on his design. This is impressive considering it was created before the Civil War and without any investment in venture capital or patent lawyers.

Why are we still losing the bees he designed for?

Unfortunately, things aren’t as positive. Langstroth may have created a hive that made beekeeping easier, but it didn’t help solve the problem of beekeeping. According to a 2024-2025 US Beekeeping Survey, conducted by Auburn University, Apiary Inspectors of America, and partner organisations, beekeepers in America lost an estimated 55.6% of their managed colonies between April 2024 and April 2025.

This is the worst loss of managed hives ever recorded in the USA since record-keeping began in 2010. The losses are driven primarily by the parasitic Varroa mite, along with related viruses and pesticide exposure. More than half the country's managed hives are affected, and beekeepers are working extremely hard to rebuild their colonies by splitting surviving hives and buying replacement bees each year just to stay in business. A hive's design makes it easier for a beekeeper to inspect and manage a colony, but it has no bearing on whether a parasitic mite infests that colony, the ease of access Langstroth's design provides and the mite-driven die-off are two separate issues, not a cause and its effect.

Why you should care

Honeybees and other pollinators contribute over $18 billion worth of value to U.S. crop production annually, as per the USDA. This is because Langstroth made it possible to commercialise pollination on this scale. Stackable hives are transported to almond orchards in California. This means the loss rate is becoming a real issue in the supply chain. Ironically, a 19th-century minister has solved the engineering aspects of beekeeping so well that we have barely changed his design in the last 170+ years. Whilst we have a great hive, we don’t have a great plan for what goes inside.