Find yourself someone with a wood planer & a table saw. Scout out some barn wood/1x12 pine. Alot of the stuff from the turn of the century was virgin timber that's still holding up to this day. Some good quality douglas fir does well in the elements if you're set on buying new lumber. People will tell you you're nuts but go for some 2x12 cut offs from a construction site. They hold together well with big fat ring shank(polebarn) nails(home depot, menards, etc). 2x4 handles will do you a world of good if you have to move them. If a bear ever gets into it, the box won't snap to pieces like the 1x lumber. I'm not a big fan of cedar because you have to countersink(drill) holes in it for screws, or pre-drill for nails to keep it from splitting. Sure it's heavy, but if you're not moving the hive around I'd hope. Take that old tire out of the garage and set the hive on that. Fill it full of dirt if you're in snake country...If you put the hive on a pallet, then lay bricks around the sides so you don't have any hiding spots. If you really want to cut corners buy one of those rafter t-squares & a skill saw. The t-square is your saw guide. I'd buy just one 9-5/8" hive body from the bee supply store/select grade pine so you have a hands on model to make your saw cuts/adjustments. Don't nail it together, just slide the finger joint corners together and maybe use 2 nails on each corner to keep it rigid if you need to mock it up for measures. If you have a countersink bit, you can tape the pre-drilled holes that are on the finger joints, hand screw a couple 1-1/4" screws to keep it tight. I used a brand new deep box that lives with the table saw for making fence adjustments when I'm cutting up lids, etc. The rest of the time that nice new deep box is my chair when I'm stapling frames & having coffee.
