Building A Better Beehive
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Contents
"Building a Better Beehive" by Frank Ramirez
Building a Better Beehive
by Frank Ramirez
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
...and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:6-7
There are some innovations invented so far back in antiquity that we don’t know the name of the genius whose invention is still in use today.
That’s not the case when it comes to the modern behive, however. We know exactly who invented the beehive that is in use just about everywhere in the world. The Reverend Lorenzo L. Langstroth (1810-1885) is the name of the inventor and 1851 is the year he perfected his invention.
Prior to 1850 beekeepers had little choice but to kill their strongest hives when they harvested honey, because those were the colonies that produced the most sweet stuff. Typically one harvested honey by crushing the honeycomb. This left the hive with little food for the winter and no hope for survival. Nor was it possible to observe the bees in their hives without invading the hive. Little was understood about the hierarchy of the hive, nor could one observe whether a hive was diseased, or in need of extra food.
Some innovations were made in the 19th century, but there was still no easy way to maintain hives from season to season, nor preserve them. In America, honey production was way down.
Enter Reverend Langstroth. His interest in insects can be traced back to his childhood in Philadelphia. He was fascinated by ants, and observed them at their work. All that was put aside as he began his acadmic studies. After graduating from Yale in 1831 he began to serve various Congregational churches in the state of Massachussetts.
In 1838, while visiting a friend who kept bees his interest in insects was reawakened. He began to keep bees in his own apiary a couple miles from his home. His scientific musings would help to create an entire industry. He was convinced that observing how bees worked was the key. As he would later put it, “The creator may be seen in all the works of his hands, but in few more directly than in the wise economy of the Honey-Bee.... It was, we know, the constant practice of our Lord and Master to illustrate his teachings from the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, and the common walks of life and pursuits of man. Common Sense, Experience and Religion alike dictate that we should follow his example.”
Three years later he had moved to Philadelphia to serve a church there. But it wasn’t easy.
Like the apostle Paul, Langstroth has an illness that despite his prayers was not lifted. Langstroth’s brilliance was paired with an overwhelming depression that often left him unable to pastor for half the year. At one point he moved out of his home and stayed with his sister in Massachusetts for six years. Beekeeping helped him get through those times.
In 1951 Langstroth created the system used by virtually all beekeepers today. He developed portable frames upon which bees could draw out wax and fill the cells they created with honey. Frames could be removed and returned to their place. One could easily find the queen, or examine the brood, check for diseases. One could also extract honey without harming the bees, because afterwards the frames could be returned to the hive. Beekeepers could leave the hive enough honey to survive the winter. It was no longer necessary to kill the bees to harvest honey.
Initially he had a problem. Bees had a tendancy to fill every available space with propolis, a kind of glue that bees produce, making it difficult to work with bees and truly study them. When the frames were glued together they couldn’t easily be removed or put back in place. That’s where his true innovation came, and it came because he observed the bees.
Bees in the wild, Langstroth noticed, required a space of about 3/8 of an inch to move around between the comb they naturally produced. Langstroth figured out he needed to create a spacing bar that would suspend the frames that exact distance apart. The bees could fly through that space and work, and they wouldn’t smear that propolis glue all over the frames. As he remembered,
Returning late in the afternoon from the apiary which I had established some two miles from my city home and pondering...the almost self-evident idea of using the same bee-space...came into my mind, and in a moment the suspended movable frames, kept at a suitable distance from each other and the case containing them, came into being...I could scarcely refrain from shouting out my ‘Eureka’ in the open streets...”
Reverend Langstroth worked with a local cabinetmaker named Henry Bourquin to constuct his hives and to obtain a patent. Soon his hives were selling across the United States. Though others had been making innovations, all recognized that his system was an improvement over others.
Honey could now be produced by the ton. A whole industry was created. Scientists could easily observe bees at their work. More was to be learned about the honeybee than any other insect.
He went on to write books on the subject, as well as co-found an American journal about beekeeping for which he provided a regular column. Reverend Langstroth’s other innovation was to import Italian bees to America, a gentler breed that is easier to manage.
Reverend Langstroth continued to suffer from depression his whole life, but he continued to endure. The family eventually moved to Ohio, where he died while delivering a sermon at Wayne Avenue Presbyterian Church in Dayton.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 4, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Building a Better Beehive" by Frank Ramirez
Building a Better Beehive
by Frank Ramirez
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
...and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:6-7
There are some innovations invented so far back in antiquity that we don’t know the name of the genius whose invention is still in use today.
That’s not the case when it comes to the modern behive, however. We know exactly who invented the beehive that is in use just about everywhere in the world. The Reverend Lorenzo L. Langstroth (1810-1885) is the name of the inventor and 1851 is the year he perfected his invention.
Prior to 1850 beekeepers had little choice but to kill their strongest hives when they harvested honey, because those were the colonies that produced the most sweet stuff. Typically one harvested honey by crushing the honeycomb. This left the hive with little food for the winter and no hope for survival. Nor was it possible to observe the bees in their hives without invading the hive. Little was understood about the hierarchy of the hive, nor could one observe whether a hive was diseased, or in need of extra food.
Some innovations were made in the 19th century, but there was still no easy way to maintain hives from season to season, nor preserve them. In America, honey production was way down.
Enter Reverend Langstroth. His interest in insects can be traced back to his childhood in Philadelphia. He was fascinated by ants, and observed them at their work. All that was put aside as he began his acadmic studies. After graduating from Yale in 1831 he began to serve various Congregational churches in the state of Massachussetts.
In 1838, while visiting a friend who kept bees his interest in insects was reawakened. He began to keep bees in his own apiary a couple miles from his home. His scientific musings would help to create an entire industry. He was convinced that observing how bees worked was the key. As he would later put it, “The creator may be seen in all the works of his hands, but in few more directly than in the wise economy of the Honey-Bee.... It was, we know, the constant practice of our Lord and Master to illustrate his teachings from the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, and the common walks of life and pursuits of man. Common Sense, Experience and Religion alike dictate that we should follow his example.”
Three years later he had moved to Philadelphia to serve a church there. But it wasn’t easy.
Like the apostle Paul, Langstroth has an illness that despite his prayers was not lifted. Langstroth’s brilliance was paired with an overwhelming depression that often left him unable to pastor for half the year. At one point he moved out of his home and stayed with his sister in Massachusetts for six years. Beekeeping helped him get through those times.
In 1951 Langstroth created the system used by virtually all beekeepers today. He developed portable frames upon which bees could draw out wax and fill the cells they created with honey. Frames could be removed and returned to their place. One could easily find the queen, or examine the brood, check for diseases. One could also extract honey without harming the bees, because afterwards the frames could be returned to the hive. Beekeepers could leave the hive enough honey to survive the winter. It was no longer necessary to kill the bees to harvest honey.
Initially he had a problem. Bees had a tendancy to fill every available space with propolis, a kind of glue that bees produce, making it difficult to work with bees and truly study them. When the frames were glued together they couldn’t easily be removed or put back in place. That’s where his true innovation came, and it came because he observed the bees.
Bees in the wild, Langstroth noticed, required a space of about 3/8 of an inch to move around between the comb they naturally produced. Langstroth figured out he needed to create a spacing bar that would suspend the frames that exact distance apart. The bees could fly through that space and work, and they wouldn’t smear that propolis glue all over the frames. As he remembered,
Returning late in the afternoon from the apiary which I had established some two miles from my city home and pondering...the almost self-evident idea of using the same bee-space...came into my mind, and in a moment the suspended movable frames, kept at a suitable distance from each other and the case containing them, came into being...I could scarcely refrain from shouting out my ‘Eureka’ in the open streets...”
Reverend Langstroth worked with a local cabinetmaker named Henry Bourquin to constuct his hives and to obtain a patent. Soon his hives were selling across the United States. Though others had been making innovations, all recognized that his system was an improvement over others.
Honey could now be produced by the ton. A whole industry was created. Scientists could easily observe bees at their work. More was to be learned about the honeybee than any other insect.
He went on to write books on the subject, as well as co-found an American journal about beekeeping for which he provided a regular column. Reverend Langstroth’s other innovation was to import Italian bees to America, a gentler breed that is easier to manage.
Reverend Langstroth continued to suffer from depression his whole life, but he continued to endure. The family eventually moved to Ohio, where he died while delivering a sermon at Wayne Avenue Presbyterian Church in Dayton.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 4, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
