That is a good bet, but there are some amazing success stories of eBay traders doing much the same.
In this case Argos or whatever company the OP mentioned are not the manufacturer so I guess so they have bought it and are selling it on. Loads of our beekeeping equipment is manufactured...
Hi Liz if you haven't been scared off. :-)
Welcome
Glad you have picked a good time to begin learning rather than in the spring when it's all a bit full on.
Good advice (already mentioned) is to join a local group.
Funnily enough I was in the Tesco TV dept yesterday getting an HDMI lead when it started to kick off because some chap was trying to buy 4 tablets (some kind of tv?) and the section manager was saying he could only buy 3 as it's the store policy.
Actually it's always worth checking the price of anything before you hit the buy it now button on eBay.
My wife knows a lady who makes her living from doing just that, you buy it and as soon as you have, she goes out to the shops and buys it and sends it to you.
Agreed, I am not advocating "leaving them alone" I was commenting on what is natural that was all. Natuaral is to leave them alone, is what I meant, in a purist way any kind of bee "keeping" is un-natural. (imho).
I wonder if you asked the bees of today wether they preferred the old way or the modern way, what they would say. Let's face it the old ways led to the death of a lot of bees.
The real "natural way" is to leave them alone in the first place.