We live in northern Ohio and our winters can get cold. I've been reading about a different style of a beehive, called a horizontal hive. The horizontal hive plans that I found use 2x lumber instead of half in thick lumber. The thought behind the thicker lumber is better insulation against the cold of winter.
I had the hive built for me:
Put in in place on a pad of bricks I put down:
And introduced the bees to their new home:
So far they seem to be doing just fine in their new home. They were getting cramped in the single-chamber hive that they were in, so I gave them three fresh foundation frames and they've drawn them out and started to fill them within two weeks. Only time will tell whether or not they'll handle winter any better in the thicker built hive.