Emily Pruyn writes:
" Is there any reason not to put some sort of handles on the hive boxes
to give a better purchase for lifting."
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     I have always been reluctant to do this because I was sure that
putting two pieces of wood together would cause rot in the wood-wood
joint.
     I just peeled two wooden hand-holds from an old hive body that I
have been using for ten years and I found no obvious rot.
     Do people who add hand-holds to hive bodies treat the wood?  How
long does the hive body last?
       I have used a dado blade on a table saw  to make deeper hand
holds in home-made honey supers. Perhaps a router would work, too.
      (Another solution to the lifting problem is to use medium-depth
supers as brood boxes.  This topic was discussed recently on Bee-L and
should be in the archives.)
Tim
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Tim Sterrett
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(southeastern) Pennsylvania, USA