Cathedral Hive Build Time Lapse

My first ever time lapse movie! Watch a mildly competent woodworker put together his first beehive. I didn't keep tight track of time, but I think this time lapse represents about 20 to 25 hours of work. This is a Cathedral Hive Kit from backyardhive.com

[@michaelsanchez1860]

Hi Bobby, nice work! Did you ever post the video with voice-over? I'd love to hear your comments blow by blow. My son and I bought the plans about a year ago and have slowly been putting ours together. We're getting ready to assemble the side panels (so getting ready to make the jig) and your comment below was very helpful as we prepare to make the jig. Did you use the spline joints they show in their plans or did you use dowels? I couldn't quite tell from your video as it looks like you brought in the panels and just glued them together in the jig.
Also, did you end up just buying your top bars or make them? I'm hoping to make our own, but know it will be challenging. Can you use cedar or would it be better to use a hardwood like poplar or ash? If you did post your video with voice over I will try and locate it. Thanks again!

[@alextardif]

Hi there - looks great, thanks for the vid! Would you mind sharing how good the instruction from backyardhive.com were to follow? Are the plans accurate? What wood did you use, and having followed their pans, do you have any tips now that you've built one yourself?

[@becclestonjr]

Hi Alexander, and thank you for the kind words. I will be posting a longer time-lapse of this same build this weekend with a voice-over that addresses much of what you asked. I'll post a link to it here in the comments when I get it uploaded.
The instructions were fine as long as you have at least some experience in woodworking. If this is the first ever project for you, I would definitely recommend a friend with woodworking experience to help out a bit. The plans are VERY accurate, with very fine tolerances. I originally bought just the plans, and had planned to build the hive from scratch. However, I ended up buying the Cathedral Hive kit once I tallied up the price of all the tools I'd need to acquire just to whittle the various hive components myself. Any accomplished woodworker with the requisite tools would be fine with just the plans if they wanted to build from scratch. There weren't any instructions given for the roof, but it was a simple step that made sense once you placed the pieces together according to the exploded schematic page from the plans.
The majority of the wood from the kit appears to be sourced from beetle-killed pine, and the top bars are made of redwood (no cedar smell noted, so I do think it's actual redwood). The blue streaking in the beetle-killed wood is gorgeous. I am VERY happy with the quality of the wood in this kit. Top notch.
My only major tip is to ensure that the gluing jig you need to make for the top and bottom halves is PERFECTLY level, true, and square. My gluing jig was just slightly off true, and it made it a pain in the butt to level them out so they sat snug together. That was the part of the video where I broke out the hand planer and then sanded the crap out of the contact surfaces of the top and bottom halves until they sat snug together. That really was the only major screwup on my part. Everything else about this build was pretty enjoyable.