About the Shed

The Bee Shed started as a question: what if you could keep bees without lifting those boxes?

The AZ hive — developed in Slovenia over a century ago — answers that question. Bees are kept in horizontal wooden boxes stacked inside an insulated shed, accessed through the back. The beekeeper works standing up, in comfort, out of the weather. No lifting heavy supers. No kneeling in the grass. Just you and the bees at eye level.

What Is an AZ Hive?

The AZ hive is a Slovenian beehive design built around a walk-in shed — called a panjska koča in Slovenia. Instead of stacking boxes vertically in a field, the hives are mounted inside a building, with the front poking through the exterior wall. The beekeeper enters the shed, opens the back of each hive, and works the frames from inside.

Meet the AZ Hive: A Slovenian Original goes deeper on the history and design if you want the full picture.

Traditional AZ hives use metric-sized frames unique to Slovenia. This shed uses Langstroth deep frames — the American standard — adapted to fit the AZ-style boxes. Same concept, parts you can actually buy at your local beekeeping supplier. See Traditional AZ vs. My American AZ for how the two compare, and Anatomy of an AZ Frame for the specifics on the frame design.

Why Langstroth Sizing?

Langstroth equipment is the dominant standard in the United States. Frames, foundation, extractors, queen excluders — everything is built around it. Adapting the AZ hive to Langstroth sizing means access to a much wider supply chain, and the ability to create splits for other local beekeepers.

The boxes were built by hand to accommodate the slightly wider Langstroth frame, keeping the AZ shed concept intact while staying practical for an American hobbyist. The path that led here started with Why I Started Looking Beyond Langstroth and the decision came down to Vertical vs. Horizontal: Why the Bees Helped Me Decide.

The Build

The existing shed was modified in stages — walls roof and floor insulated, and one wall reframed and sided before the hive boxes went in. Six hive positions line the back wall, each with its own entrance hole through the exterior and a chalkboard outer door for notes. A small workstation sits in the corner of the shed for tools, uncapping, and record keeping.

The hive boxes themselves were built from scratch. The full build series walks through every step:

Once the boxes were done, the shed came together — Re-siding the Shed End, Bee Entrances Through the Wall, and finally Moving Day: Getting the Shed and Bees in Place. Take the Interior Tour to see how it all came together inside.

The exterior was the fun part. The front of the shed features a hand-painted mural of the Scooby-Doo gang — Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma — surrounded by oversized wasps. Painting the Scooby Doo Mural tells that story. It took longer than the framing.

The Scooby-Doo Theme

Every hive needed a name. The gang was the obvious choice — 5 characters, six hives, so we added a monster. The names stuck, and the mural followed naturally. What started as a label system became the personality of the whole project. Read Why Our Hives Have Names: The Scooby Doo Theme for the full story.

The site is called The Bee Shed, but if you look at the hive entrances on the exterior wall you’ll see the chalkboard signs: Wasp, Daphne, Fred, Scooby, Shaggy, Velma. Six hives. Six characters.

How I Got Here

I didn’t start with an AZ shed. Like most beekeepers I started with a swarm and a Langstroth box — How I Got Into Bees covers those early days, and From a Swarm to Our First Langstroth picks up from there. What I Read and Watched While the World Was Closed and the help and support of my family eventually led to this shed.