Are they such cheap-skates that the OMF is not 460mm square?
For those not familiar with the Th0rnes budget mesh floor:
Two 460mm long side bars are slotted to take an expanded steel mesh 22mm below the top, leaving a 40mm gap below. The front bar is nailed to the side bars at the corners under the mesh leaving the usual 22mm front entrance above. The rear bar is nailed at the corners over the mesh. This leaves a gap at the rear under the mesh to take the correx sheet varroa monitoring tray supported by two plastic runners tacked inside the side rails. The expanded galvanised mesh is more rigid than woven mesh and helps keep the entire frame square while being constructed. The mesh is 460mm front to rear but around 10mm short of the full width where it fits in the slots.
The 'budget' nature of the floor is apparent in the limited number of components. There are only four lengths of butt jointed wood, the mesh, the correx sheet and the plastic runners. Fixings are limited to round wire nails for the corners (plus wood glue from the whole hive kit), short pins for the runners and drawing pins to hold the mesh to the front and rear bars. The greatest deficiency is with the drawing pins. With temperature and humidity movement pins work loose and don't hold the mesh securely at the rear; the mesh sags and the bees exit by squeezing out between the mesh and the rear bar. The drawing pins also rust.
This 'budget' flat pack OMF is, as far as I know, only supplied with the 'bees on a budget' hive. It is not identical to the pre assembled OMF and is not listed separately online. That they are different is shown by the listing of different length entrance blocks. The pre-assembled one may well have more secure fixings. In using drawing pins on the budget version, they have just pared a few pennies too much off the cost. A few wire staples or galvanised clout nails improve rigidity as well as closing gaps.
You could argue that screws rather than nails are a worthwhile addition for the floor corners as they are for all the boxes. I would agree, but the simplicity is that you can assemble the whole hive as supplied with only a hammer. As it arrives as floor, boxes, roof, boards, frames and foundation in a single box I know people who order one as an economical standby in spring and raid it for spares as needed.
