Modern Langstroth hives have different dimensions from L. L. Langstroth's beehive that was originally patented in 1852 and manufactured until circa 1920, but retain the main features of allowing bee space, as well as easy access, which works well for the bees, but also makes management of the beehive easier for the beekeeper.

During the summer of 1851, Langstroth applied the concept to keeping the lid free on a top-bar hive, but in autumn of the same year, he realized that the bee space could be applied to a newly designed frame which would prevent the bees from attaching honeycomb to the inside of the hive box.

US Patent 9300 was issued to Langstroth on October 5, 1852,[2] and remained valid despite numerous attempts to challenge it based on its alleged use of prior art.

A dimension of 7 ± 2 mm (9⁄32 ± 5⁄64 in or roughly 1⁄4–3⁄8 in) is nowadays the usual size meant when bee space is referred to.

[5] Dr. Jan Dzierżon, a Polish apiarist, had determined the correct spacing for the top bars in beehives in 1835.

[6] Later, in 1848, Dzierżon introduced grooves into his hives' side walls, to replace the strips of wood from which the top bars had earlier been hung.

In Europe, both Dzierżon and fellow apiarist Baron August von Berlepsch had been focused on side-opened hives.

The so-called bee space had been incorporated by Berlepsch into his frame arrangement (Bienen-Zeitung, May 1852) following Dzierżon's discovery that grooves added to inner walls remained free of propolis (1848).

Langstroth's patent of 5 October 1852 adopted 3⁄8 in (9.5 mm) as the upper limit of the bee space, slightly larger than optimal, between the side bars of a frame and hive wall, and also reserved rights to use the distance 1⁄2 in (13 mm) between top bars and inner cover, the latter of which represents a gap larger than optimal.

Being able to remove and replace combs so easily makes it possible, and practical, for beekeepers to inspect all of their hives on a regular basis.

Such inspections, to check for signs of disease and/or parasites, imminent swarming, an aging queen, and other conditions requiring intervention, are essential to successful bee husbandry.

In areas with a hot summer, a solid inner cover with a communication hole provides dead-air space for insulation against both heat and cold.

A communication hole in the middle allows bees to reach emergency food placed above by the beekeeper if it becomes required.

The frames holding combs have top bars that hang on rabbeted slots or rails along the upper sides of a box.

Shallow supers are not ideal for the brood chamber of the hive because the bees need to form a single compact sphere during the cold winter months—a sphere that can expand and contract without being divided by a horizontal plane in the middle caused by the gaps between combs in multiple hive bodies.

Commercial operations usually use one or two deep hive bodies for brood, and additional shallow boxes for honey supers.

Also, a continental deep hive body called "jumbo" allows for Dadant-sized big brood frames.

They enable a great deal of hive management; inspection and harvest become both easier and less destructive of bees and beekeepers.

This practice is a mode of transfer of pests and diseases more effectively, that has haunted modern beekeeping since its introduction.

In his book, Langstroth said that he chose this orientation by observing bees' preferences when building comb in box hives.

When new frames are installed, they are filled with "foundation", artificial comb made of recycled natural beeswax or plastic.

Some beekeepers, such as Christy Hemenway,[15] have said that they believe that insecticides can be concentrated in the recycled wax, harming bees' health.

The top bars of the patent Langstroth frames were "comb guides", 60° triangular prisms of wood pointing downwards.

A white plastic sheet is sometimes coated with a slightly sticky substance, and slid over the bottom board to trap and count fallen varroa mites, a bee parasite that can infest hives.

In hot weather or full nectar season, the entire reducer can be removed to help cool the hive and permit more traffic to the fields.

Langstroth's patent entrance included two traps designed to attract wax moths away from the bee entry.

Many beekeepers reject the use of queen excluders, however, claiming that they create a barrier for workers and result in lower levels of honey collection and storage.