I based the deign loosely on the design found at
http://www.§¤«£¿æ.com/
I changed the measurements a bit so I can fasten standard norwegian frames to the top bars and make that fit into the hive which makes it easier to start up the hive. It is not common to order bees in the mail in Norway as it is in the US. Here the normal way to buy bees is to buy some frames with bees, and I wanted to be able to make use of the frames in the startup of the hive. Later I can move them sideways and when there is no more brood on the left, I can remove them all together.
The hive at §¤«£¿æ have three holes on one side in the middle, and one at the end on the other side. This makes it possible to have a split/nuc at one end which is very practical for swarm control. In the suggested way to do this was to turn the hive around 180 degrees to make the field bees fly in to the split/nuc and then later turn the hive around again. This seemed very impractical to me, so I made 7 holes on each side. Normally I will use the three in the middle on one side, but with holes on both sides, I can make the arrangement for the split/nuc by closing the three holes on the one side, and then open up the three on the other. This way I don't have to turn the hive around, this on the cost of increased construction time.
After I made the hive, a friend of mine refered me to a page mentioning some problems with a too large area for the brood. My hive is around 50cm on top and 35cm on the bottom. That is bigger than most of the TBHs i suppose. The reason was, again, to be able to put in standard norwegian frames. A problem I might get is that the comb will be too heavy, or that the bees won't use all the space. Maybe I will add a vertical beam in the middle of each bar to give the bees something more to fasten the comb to. Would it be a good idea to attach those right away?