Western Red Cedar is our premier wood, and today it is the material we use for our hives. We have worked with other woods in the past, including Sugar Pine and Douglas Fir, but Western Red Cedar best fits the standard we want every BeeBuilt hive to meet, from the hive body to other hardworking hive components.
It is light for its strength, naturally rot resistant, and well suited to life outdoors. Our Western Red Cedar is kiln-dried to keep moisture levels consistent, which helps the wood resist warping and cracking in hive boxes and other hive parts. It is also FSC® certified and harvested just a few hours from our shop in Portland, Oregon.You can learn more in our blog post, Why We Use Western Red Cedar.
A well-cared-for Western Red Cedar hive can last for decades. Left unfinished, it weathers into a soft grey patina. Sealed with tung oil, it keeps more of its natural glow. Either way, the wood is doing real work from the start: protecting the hive from weather and pests, insulating the colony, and bringing natural beauty to the yard, garden, or apiary.
Every BeeBuilt hive is hand-built in-house at our workshop in Portland, Oregon. The same shop, the same team, and the same standards guide each hive from start to finish. Precision milling and tight joinery are not upgrades for us. They are the baseline, whether we are building Top Bar hives, a Warre hive, or other horizontal hives designed for natural comb.
We mill, assemble, fasten, and finish our hives under one roof so we can stay close to every detail. Stainless fasteners, Lexan windows, composite aluminum roofing, Black Walnut closures, and wooden bars are chosen because they match the quality of the wood, not because they cut costs. We would rather build fewer hives well than rush more out the door. The goal is a hive that holds up season after season, as bees build wax, shape beeswax comb, and fill honeycombs over time.
Every BeeBuilt hive is milled and assembled in our Portland shop, not made overseas and not outsourced to a third party. The lumber itself comes from Pacific Northwest forests just a few hours from our mill, which keeps material miles low and helps us stay connected to the source, from the first cut of wood to the parts that make up the finished hive.
That matters to us. Building in the USA supports a small American shop and the people who work here. It also keeps our sourcing and quality standards consistent from the first cut of wood to the finished hive that arrives at your door.
Our hive designs start with how bees actually live, not with what is easiest to manufacture. Natural, foundationless beekeeping is central to what we build. It gives bees room to draw comb at their own pace and scale, while giving beekeepers a closer view of the colony’s natural rhythm as the queen lays eggs, worker bees raise brood, and the colony stores food. You can learn more about this approach on our Natural Beekeeping page.
Our Top Bar and Warré hives are built around bee biology, not just human convenience. They support natural comb, steady seasonal growth, and a style of beekeeping that values colony health over maximum honey production. Instead of designing only around brood boxes, honey supers, or removable parts, we focus on how bees build, store honey, and move through the hive in nature. Our Mason hives carry that same thinking into native pollinator support, offering solitary bees a simple nesting habitat without the management needs of a honeybee hive.
We believe good beekeeping information should be accessible, which is why we publish educational resources covering a range of hive styles, including Langstroth hives. While our products are built around natural beekeeping with Top Bar, Warré, and Mason hives, our goal is to help beekeepers learn and succeed, regardless of the hive style they choose.
Our support does not stop once your hive ships. Every hive includes assembly instructions, and our team is here to answer real questions from real beekeepers. Customer support is available six days a week, whether you need help with assembly, setup, hive parts like the bottom board or outer cover, or choosing the right next step for your Warré hive, Top Bar hive, or Mason hive.
Hives are also shipping next-day again for the first time in years, which means you can get your setup moving without a long wait. We also create videos, blog posts, and educational resources to help beekeepers succeed over time, not just buy products. That includes guidance for seasonal questions around fall, cool weather, hive setup, and disease concerns. Customer feedback shapes what we build, too. The Bee Snug roof kit, for example, came directly from customer requests.
We are always learning, improving, and building better tools for the people who care for bees. To keep learning with us, sign up for our newsletter and follow along as we share new articles, product updates, and beekeeping resources.
When you choose a BeeBuilt hive, you are choosing more than a place for bees to live. You are choosing Western Red Cedar, careful craftsmanship, American-made quality, bee-centered design, and real support from people who care about the work. Our hives are built to last through the seasons, support colony health, and make beekeeping feel more beautiful, practical, and connected from the start.
If you are still deciding which hive style fits your goals, start with our learning pages for Top Bar hives, Warré hives, Mason hives, and Langstroth hives. Each one can help you think through what kind of beekeeping experience feels right for you, whether you are drawn to simple management, natural comb, native pollinator support, or a more familiar hive style.
BeeBuilt hives are made with Western Red Cedar, built in-house in Portland, Oregon, and designed around natural beekeeping, thoughtful craftsmanship, and long-term support.
BeeBuilt hives are made from FSC® certified Western Red Cedar, with durable details like stainless fasteners, Lexan windows, composite aluminum roofing, and Black Walnut closures.
BeeBuilt hives are milled and assembled in our workshop in Portland, Oregon, using lumber sourced from Pacific Northwest forests just a few hours from our mill.
Yes, our Top Bar and Warré hives support foundationless beekeeping, which allows bees to build natural comb at their own pace and scale.
Yes, every hive includes assembly instructions, and our team offers customer support six days a week, along with videos, articles, and resources to help you keep learning.
