This is not a 'commercial' question. The physical cost of a canvass and the oil paints used to paint a picture bear no relation to what a punter might pay for the finished painting. Similarily, the use of the term priceless is meaningless because it doesn't convey a 'tangible' value.
So my question is what's a hive worth to you?
One hive? All hives? That's taking hive to mean the physical structure and a colony within. I suspect there are too many variables for the question to have any answer that is satisfactory. For what it's worth, and to pass a damp lunchtime:
The analogy of cost of materials to make a painting doesn't quite stand up. The payment to an artist (or whoever acquired the painting since) comes with the assumption that it's a one off. It contains the thought and expression of that thought that the artist put into it. No-one could re-produce that exactly, including the artist, even if they wanted to. What it's worth is what someone is prepared to pay for it, which is complex and includes such factors as how well known the work is. Which is where we get into 'Scream' territory or practically any van Gogh. The fact that 'Scream' or 'Sunflowers' exists in a few versions helps with the 'well known' part since the others are locked away in museums and will never be on open sale.
To search for other artistic analogies, nor is a hive like a limited edition print in that we can split, split and split again given time and materials. If anything, it's closer to an unlimited print run. The cost to buy one essentially comes down to the physical cost of materials and technician skill to reproduce it plus retail mark up. It also includes a royalty fee to the artist for permission to copy which doesn't translate so well.
A closer analogy might be to other animals. To a large scale pedigree dog breeder the worth of keeping a show champion dog is in it's potential to breed more. Along with the fact that those progeny are desirable. Any individual is worth no more than others are prepared to pay to get some of that bloodline. Champions do change hands, and cost thousands running to tens of thousands, their puppies cost hundreds up to thousands in cash terms. In the bee world that is something like the scale of charges for specialist queens maintained in exclusive bloodlines, albeit on a smaller scale. In practice, dog breeders tend to make agreements that are set aside from the cash value, such as agreeing to provide a dog as a stud service to another breeder in return for 'the pick of the litter'. If the dog is not fertile after a certain age, it is worth nothing to the breeder, if a queen stops laying it is worth nothing.
In practice, even for breeders, familiarity makes dogs pets which have an entirely different scale of value. Families are given pups of mixed pedigree, they are essentially worthless. After a few years, a few medical complications come with vet bills for a hundred, a few hundred, even thousands. And they are paid. Similarly, I guess for many small scale beekeepers. The second hand value of a colony in a hive is limited but there are many who put large amounts of time and buy expensive equipment to keep their bees going. Not 'priceless' in the sense that art can be impossible to establish a market value for. But they can be 'priceless' in that the owner will pay out again and again to keep a few hives going without recovering the cost in either production or future sales which does make any 'tangible' estimate of value impossible.
deep green... no seats for them in the Tory Tumble... what PASTY TAX ???
seems so
