Emily asks about handles on hives to make lifting easier.
 
Emily, many commercial beekeepers screw and glue a 1.75" X 1.75" piece of
wood on the long side of the hives for just this purpose.  The size is
dictated by the dimensions of a "2 X 4" cut in half.  (For those of you
outside the US, our standard four inch wood actually measures only three and
one-half inches.)
 
There are very few disadvantages to this.  Perhaps the biggest are that when
the hives or supers are put in a truck or in storage they take up more room
because of the handles and empty hives or supers cannot be "nested".
 
Lloyd