bee hive prices,is this a good deal??

[chickendave]

Well when you take the cost of the frames out the th***es budget hives come in at less than £60, and they come in cedar with two supers.

From that supplier you mentioned delivery is £19.50 to Ireland, hive is £116.67, vat is £23.33 total £159.50 so a £100 pounds for frames and fondation which will be seconds, but the hive is cedar and most probably seconds
I agree with you get what you pay for but sometimes you got to keep within your budget and to whoever mentioned about the glue(I think post 18) unless you ask the supplier you would not know exactly what type of glue was used, even if it was just a waterproof pva glue drilled and screwed the joints would be very difficult to seperate

 

[Chris58]

If you have bees in the hive can you still paint on the preservative?

 

[user 6228]

That sounds a bit far out to m e You are going to need full PPE when you get near the entrance even if it doesnt harm the bees

 

[Teemore]

I recently went through a couple of hives which were made by the current user's grandfather... circa WW2 - they are butt jointed and rebated much like the hives pictured by Darren. As far as i know they have been in continuous use and felt sturdy enough. I haven't a clue as to the type of timber used in them as it is well disguised by the layers of creosote applied over the years!

 

[JohnRoss]

I was excluding the vat because I can get it back ;-)