Building a simple box as a beehive...

Hello everyone !

Three days ago, this gorgeous family of bees arrived in our garden.
I contacted all the bee keepers I know on my little island but nobody has a spare beehive and nobody has time to come. They are very calm and just stay on their tree why a few of them fly around, looking for the best place to build their house, I guess.
I would love to let them decide where they want to stay but this tree is between our outdoor kitchen and eating area and it's in a plce where people keep passing by and I wouldn't want anyone (bee or human) to get hurt.
I'm looking at plans to build a beehive but I was wondering. I don't plan on taking their honey (or Anything else) so do I really hqave to make something special ? What about if I just build a wooden box with an entrance at the bottom ? I would maybe have to build a few frames too ? Would that be enough for them to feel good ?

Thank you !
<3

Yes a simple box is all that is necessary. Parallel strips at the top for them to start the comb on is very helpful. Having the top of the box waterproof and the bottom removable for inspection and cleaning may be the best design for your purpose.  Giving them a ventilation hole they can control during hot and cold weather near the top may be a good idea.

As Hans has said a simple box is all that is needed.

Looking at the construction of the manufactured box will help.

I would suggest making frames also.

The frames from this post look easy to make:

https://permies.com/wiki/350/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1810170

Thank you both very much !

Giving them a ventilation hole they can control

How could I do that ? Any ideas ?

Thank you <3

Perhaps drill a hole and fill it with something they can chew out as desired like rolled up paper.

If you want it to be as simple and cheap as possible - look into a Kenyan top bar hive or a Sam Comfort hive. That looks like a very small swarm (likely a secondary swarm) so lower chances of survival. Your post is 4 days old, by now you have either caught them or they found a place to live on their own.

there are lots of plans on internet for a simple swarm box. a couple drops of lemongrass oil can be very helpful to catch and attract a swarm

bruce Fine wrote:there are lots of plans on internet for a simple swarm box. a couple drops of lemongrass oil can be very helpful to catch and attract a swarm

But you would also want a more permanent home, a hive! The web site shown below has FREE PLANS that you can use to build a horizontal type hive. You need to find what STYLE of frames are used by your local BeeKeepers and design your hive - and frames -  to accommodate that style of frames. Many people with the Langstroth hives (vertical hives) are switching to the horizontal hive format due to the weight (60-80 lbs) of the supers used in the Langstroth hives. The same frames, filled full of honey, in a horizontal style hive would only weigh 8-10 lbs.

In your hive you need a minimum of 2 frames for the brood - where the queen lays eggs and the young are hatched out. And, depending on how cold the winters are you need to feed the bees occasionally, but also leave at least 10 frames of honey for the bees to overwinter.

They have a couple of good books on this web site and the Free Plans for hives, frames, swarm traps.

https://www.horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/hive-frame-swarm-trap.shtml

HEY! HAVE FUN WITH YOUR NEW HOBBY! IF you have questions/problems you local beekeepers are the very best source of information and usually they are willing to take the time to help a 'newbie' beekeeper.