According to bigtime beekeeper Leo Sharashkin, a great benefit of using horizontal hives (as opposed to vertically-oriented boxes) is that “you can sleep in them.” Sharashkin built his own bee bed and has shared free plans on his site.
“I call it Bed-and-Bees or B&B and it is a long horizontal hive where you are separated from the bees by thin planks and can bathe in their warmth and vibration and smells without any danger of being stung,” he writes. “It will change your life forever once you experience how relaxing and soothing and healing it is. It surely changed ours!”
Bed & Bees: Sleep with the Bees (HorizontalHive.com via Weird Universe)