All You Need to Know About Langstroth Bee Hives for Sale

If you have ever imagined a bee hive or seen one on TV, in an advert or on the side of the road as you drove through the country, you saw a Langstroth bee hive. For over 150 years, Langstroth bee hives for sale have dominated the industry despite the many different, newer, and more advanced options available. The simple truth when it comes to the popularity of the Langstroth bee hive brand is that – it works!

We are going to take a closer look at Langstroth bee hives, what they are made of, why they are so popular and why you should consider using them on your next beekeeping project.

An Introduction to Langstroth Bee Hives

While there are different types of Langstroth bee hives, the overall design remains the same in all of them except for a few modifications in each type. Here is the basic design overview of the popular Langstroth bee hives.

Overall Design Overview of Langstroth Bee Hives

The thing about Langstroth bee hives is that they are very customizable. Your typical hive looks like a stack of boxes on each other, and you can add to this stack as many boxes as you are comfortable. These boxes come in 3 depths: deep, medium, and shallow.

You also have a choice between a 10 frame width or an 8 frame. Your typical Langstroth bee hive has three distinct sections:

The lower section: this is the base on which the entire structure rests. This bottom board has an entrance that allows the bees to come and go as they please.

The Boxes: these are perhaps the most important section of any bee hive because it’s where all the action takes place. The bees can use the boxes for brooding and producing wax and honey. They are also housed in the boxes and so is propolis as well as collected pollen. It is this section that makes Langstroth bee hives popular with most beekeepers because it allows them to add as many boxes as they see fit, thus giving them free rein of the expansion of their beekeeping business.

Upper section: this section has an inner cover that sits on top of the box that is uppermost in the structure. It also has a top cover that covers the entire structure.

Langstroth Bee Hive Features and Accessories

Apart from the above sections, there are several other features and accessories that make Langstroth hives worth having for most beekeepers:

The materials used in making Langstroth bee hives

You can tell the quality of a product by the kind of materials used in making it as well as the craftsmanship employed. Langstroth bee hives for sale are made using the best possible wood and materials. The wood used is not only long lasting but is also ideal for beekeeping and often FSC® certified which means that they come from forests that are audited to protect ecosystems, promote growth, support surrounding communities, protect indigenous rights and prohibit illegal logging.

The most popular wood used in Langstroth bee hives includes Douglas fir, sugar pine, and western red cedar. All of these provide perfect protection and insulation for the honey bees.

Very unique comb joints

Some thought went into designing these comb joints. Built to be similar to honeycombs, the comb joints feature interlocking semi-hexagonal pieces. These joints are extremely efficient and very strong. There are no weak points, which means that when you buy a Langstroth bee hive, you get an extremely strong and durable bee hive.

Telescoping top cover

While there are several options from which you can choose when it comes to the top cover of the roof of your Langstroth bee hive, the most common is a telescoping top cover which overlaps the inner cover. This design helps to keep rainwater from dripping into the hive itself.

An entrance reducer

As a beekeeper, you probably want to do everything in your power to protect and help your colony thrive. That is why an entrance reducer is very important. In the early stages of a colony forming, the number of bees within the colony can be fewer than anticipated.

This means that there are very few bees to defend that beautiful Langstroth bee hive from being robbed by other bees that don’t belong to your colony. An entrance reducer basically acts like a door you can close or open slightly so as to let fewer bees in.

By including an entrance reducer, Langstroth bee hives give your young colony a chance to fight and protect their honey by reducing the area that they need to defend.

A queen excluder

This keeps the queen excluded from the rest of the colony. It’s basically a metal or plastic grid that is placed on the uppermost box.

The Pros of Using Langstroth Bee Hives:

• They are very expandable, allowing you to add more space for your bees
• They have highly interchangeable parts as the dimensions are defined by the Langstroth standard. This means that you can find the parts to your bee hive in almost any beekeeper’s store
• They are very affordable
• They bring a wonderful sense of familiarity as you can actually find them in almost every single beekeeping club or store. This means that the information you need about using and maintaining these bee hives is easily available
• The Langstroth bee hive is known for its ability to generate very high yields of honey mostly because it’s so expandable

Cons:

• The boxes can be very heavy and cumbersome to maneuver
• Inspection can be equally cumbersome
• Many Langstroth hives are sold unassembled, so you will have to put it together

Summary

Langstroth bee hives have been on sale for more than 150 years now. That alone should tell you that they are a trusted brand and the kind of bee hive that actually works. Because it happens to be one of the most popular bee hive types in North America, it’s very easy to find information on how to use, maintain and get the most out of your Langstroth bee hive. All you have to do now is choose one and enjoy the high yields that come with it.