I have been looking forward to the day I could keep bees. I am beginning to make my hive now. I have decided to start with a Horizontal Hive with a solid Bottom. Any fellow Washington Bee keeps have any advice.
I think you would do better with standard equipment (Langstroth hives) to start. It is easier to get help and compatible equipment that way. And I prefer a screened bottom board, for ventilation in the summer, and sliding the board our gives me a peek into what is going on in the hive, without opening it up.
While I utilize Langstroth hives personally, I know that many horizontal beekeeping proponents utilize the Layens platform.
And you might already be well away of this already, but Dr. Leo Sharashkin has a free set of instructions / materials list for building a Layens on his website:
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