Hello From Washington State

Hello from Eastern WA!

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.

Best of sucess to you in your beekeeping!

Welcome, Rusted_Rudder (great screen name BTW).

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:

http://horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/layens-beehive-design.shtml

Best of success to you in your beekeeping efforts- sounds like you are going have to get busy building if you are going to get into bees this year .

Russ