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Langstroth Hive

The movable-frame hive most beekeepers know.


An open ten-frame Langstroth hive with hanging frames and honeybees.
Open Langstroth hive of Italian honeybees. Photo by Benlisquare. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Langstroth hive is a stack of boxes that hold hanging frames. Bees build comb on those frames, and the keeper can lift each frame out without cutting the nest apart. This page explains the idea in plain language. The name Langstroth Hive is a natural home for that subject.

What a Langstroth hive is

A typical hive has a floor, one or more brood boxes, honey boxes (supers) stacked on top, and a lid. Inside each box, frames hang with a small gap around them — often called bee space — so the colony does not glue every part shut. The frames are the working unit.

Why keepers use movable frames

Movable frames let a keeper inspect brood, look for disease, and harvest honey without destroying the comb. That is why this stacked-box design became the common hive in much of the world. Other hive styles exist; this page is only about this one.

How the hive is used, in brief

Bees draw comb on the frames. The keeper adds boxes as the colony grows, checks frames through the season, and removes honey frames when they are ready. Local clubs and public extension pages cover the details. If you want this name for that topic, it is for sale.

Inquiries about this name go to inquiries@langstrothhive.com