When I was looking for more bee-friendly alternatives to beekeeping, Johann Ludwig Christ’s German book “Anweisung zur nützlichsten und angenehmsten Bienenzucht für alle Gegenden” (Instruction to the most useful and convenient beekeeping for all areas) came to my hands.

Christ must have been an outstanding observer as well as an excellent pragmatist. Some of his reflections about the biology and sociology of the honeybee were fare ahead of the common thinking at his time.

His draft of the New Hive was well-elaborated and probably only the invention of the movable frame hive by Lorenzo Langstroth stopped the widespread usage of it. Today we know, Lorenzo’s hive is very convenient for the beekeeper but far from optimal for the bees. Many beekeepers around the world have recognized that and  try to provide the bees with  housings that are much better adapted to their needs needs. Would it be a good idea to do a short time travel to see what  our ancestors have to tell us?

I got at least so excited on my time travel, or in other words about Christ’s book, that I just had to make a transcript of it. In order to improve readability and make the content easier to translate, the phrasing and grammar has been slightly adjusted to modern German. Enjoy reading!