In the period just prior to that beehive development which put Langstroth's name into such prominence, experiments were being conducted by beekeepers around the world in an attempt to improve upon the requirement to destroy colonies of bees in order to extract their honey. One of these was Johann Dzierzon, of whom a Wikipedia entry reads:
Although Dzierzon wrote some 800 beekeeping articles and published several books, unfortunately only one of these books: 'Rational Beekeeping' is readily available: written in 1861 and translated (for the second time) and finally published in English during 1882.
The beehive design for which Dzierzon is most famous is the 'Twin-Stock', for which he gained many prizes and which is essentially a building block of two hives, back-to-back, which can be stacked (typically 4 pairs of hives upon a single stand, and underneath a single roof), or assembled in multiples to form the equivalent of a beehouse.
What may possibly be of interest are the typical sizes of these Twin-Stock boxes: 8-10"W x 15-16"H x 28-29"L (Width, Height, Length)
Earlier in his book, Dzierzon discusses the merits and deficiencies of the Thorstock Hive (essentially a rectangular version of the classic skep), the typical sizes of which were: 10"W x 15-16"H x 25-30"L
BTW - it's not made clear whether those were Internal or External measurements, but it would appear that, generally speaking, comb widths in the range of 8 to 10 inches were favoured, with a depth of around 15".
So - should anyone be tempted to try working with such comb sizes they can very easily be achieved by either running Top Bars across a box of the appropriate dimensions, or by making-up a box to suit either British National or Langstroth Deep Frames (with removable top bars) rotated through 90 degrees into 'Portrait format', as opposed to the standard 'Landscape format' to give frame sizes of 8.5"W x 14.5"H or 9"W x 17"H respectively - which is a frame format Greg has been enthusing about for quite some time.
LJ
So - are there any features worth salvaging from such pre-Langstroth designs ?
Although Dzierzon wrote some 800 beekeeping articles and published several books, unfortunately only one of these books: 'Rational Beekeeping' is readily available: written in 1861 and translated (for the second time) and finally published in English during 1882.
The beehive design for which Dzierzon is most famous is the 'Twin-Stock', for which he gained many prizes and which is essentially a building block of two hives, back-to-back, which can be stacked (typically 4 pairs of hives upon a single stand, and underneath a single roof), or assembled in multiples to form the equivalent of a beehouse.
What may possibly be of interest are the typical sizes of these Twin-Stock boxes: 8-10"W x 15-16"H x 28-29"L (Width, Height, Length)
Earlier in his book, Dzierzon discusses the merits and deficiencies of the Thorstock Hive (essentially a rectangular version of the classic skep), the typical sizes of which were: 10"W x 15-16"H x 25-30"L
BTW - it's not made clear whether those were Internal or External measurements, but it would appear that, generally speaking, comb widths in the range of 8 to 10 inches were favoured, with a depth of around 15".
So - should anyone be tempted to try working with such comb sizes they can very easily be achieved by either running Top Bars across a box of the appropriate dimensions, or by making-up a box to suit either British National or Langstroth Deep Frames (with removable top bars) rotated through 90 degrees into 'Portrait format', as opposed to the standard 'Landscape format' to give frame sizes of 8.5"W x 14.5"H or 9"W x 17"H respectively - which is a frame format Greg has been enthusing about for quite some time.
LJ