Customer Reviews

Langstroth's Hive and the Honey-Bee: The Classic Beekeeper's Manual

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The front cover says 'The Classic Beekeeper's Manual' and so it is. Originally published in 1878, this book was written by the man who invented the movable frame hives that are still in use worldwide today (picture the classic wooden box beehive). The techniques used in this book are also still used today. Mentioned in the book are the 3 casts of bees Queen, Worker and Drone, Combs, Propolis, Ventilation, various kinds of swarms, pests and diseases, loss of the queen, robbing, feeding, wintering bees, etc. There are 25 very detailed artists' plates depicting hive construction and some bee anatomy.

It's interesting to read about beekeeping as described in the 1800's. Here's an excerpt: "A clergyman told me, that he attended a funeral, where, as soon as the coffin was brought from the hosue, the bees gathered upon it so as to excite much alarm. Some years after this occurrence, being engaged in varnishing a table, the bees alighted upon it in such numbers, as to convince him, that love of varnish, rather than sorrow or respect for the dead, was the occasion of their conduct at the funeral." The beeswax used to make the varnish would have been what attracted the bees.