Easipet National Beehive Cedar with Two Super Boxes, Complete Flat Pack Kit with Metal Runners and Queen Excluder

This hive is better finished than my two existing cedar budget hives from Thornes which cost £40 more than the £115 that I paid for this. The Easipet spec seems to have been updated from previous reviews as it came with a metal queen excluder, a mesh varroa floor and a plywood inspection board which slides under the mesh floor. In practice, I am not sure how easy it would be to clean bee debris, varroa, wax and propolis off the ply, so I will probably use a corex sheet as I do with my other hives. Personally, I prefer crenellated spacers in the supers but this hive has metal runners, as in the brood box so you would either need to purchase crenallated spacers or plastic ends for the super frames - not a massive problem or expense. As stated, it does not come with frames and foundation or glue and nails so you would need to purchase these separately. I am an urban beekeeper with limited storage space and will only be using this hive as part of my swarm management so I have screwed it together using 1 1/4" x 8 mm screws so I can disassemble it at the end of the season.Ultimately, this is a cedar box for keeping bees so I can only comment on the materials and construction, which can not be faulted. The surfaces have been smoothly planed, including the cut-outs in the crown board, it fits together easily, seems pretty robust and is good value. I will update the review at the end of the season if any faults develop.

A really good product. Accurately machined using good cedar wood, it went together beautifully and was easy to construct. Opening the box was a treat too. The scent of the cedar was wonderful and the numerous parts fitted so efficiently into the box like a puzzle. Having checked all the bits were there I could not get them back in with the same economy of space! In addition I thought there would probably not be a varoea screen for the floor but there was and the Queen excluder is a beautifully crafted thing made with bamboo! It might not last too long but I am not bothered about replacing it when needed. Just for the record I have not built a hive before and am not a great woodworker so I was expecting to find this a bit of a trial but infact it was a doddle to construct. I am really pleased with it and am going to buy another one.

Having never built a hive before the instructions were a bit lacking, especially the drawings which were way to small to help with putting it together. I needed to buy 2 bee escapes for the crown board.However the components were well made and fitted accurately. The WR Cedar was fine grained and mine came with the mesh floor which I stapled to the base.Also the roof was ready to simply drop on with the metal already fitted. Lastly metal strips are supplied which fit to the side of the boxes for the frames sit on, not just a chamfered edge to wood like some hives I have seen.I am interested to know how I should tweak the ventilation but other than that I am well satisfied and the colony I just installed seem happy as well!

The bee hive is good for what we paid for it. When it arrived I did find the manufacturer had put one part in the box wrong, I contacted the seller and they forwarded me a spare part within a couple of days. All in all very happy so I am buying a second one.

I am new to beekeeping but was assured that a cedar hive was the way to go. I bought this from Easipet and was really happy with the product I received. It arrived earlier than expected and was very easy to put together. The instructions are easy to follow and the finished hive looks really good quality. I had one slight issue with one of the parts (some chips in the wood - only cosmetic). I contacted the manufacturer directly and they sent put a new part straight away. They have been very helpful with advice.Of course, I haven't used the hive yet but do not envisage an issues.

A hive for those on a tight budget - £100 cheaper that a Thorne's hive - but it tells.The wood is light-weight, as is the overall construction and splits and cracks easily. The joints are very small compared to the chunky one's of a Thorne hive. Not doubled-walled as the Thorne hive but uses four runners for the basic construction. Relatively easy to assemble, but would not buy another - rather spend the extra £100 on a solid, good quality hive from another source. Not sure the bees would over-winter in Scotland with such a light-weight construction.

We have bought 4 of these beehive kits now, and they have been really good. It helps if you have some idea already how the parts fit together (and where the nails are supposed to go) as the plans/instructions are a little sketchy. Also the kits don't come with nails so you need to get some suitable sized ones before you start putting it together. (Thornes do a suitable set of nails but you could use nails from elsewhere). The trickiest problem with the recent kit we put together was that some of the inner wall panels had started to warp so needed some effort with a G-clamp to get them to fit into the slots. It's definitely worth a trial run before starting to nail it all together. Also, make sure the side-wall inserts are in the right place up/down before starting to nail them, to make sure you get the right bee-space (meant to be at the bottom, so that the frames will be flush with the top of the box when fitted)Our kits came with a varroa mesh floor (which had to be staple-gunned to the wooden floor), and they also came with a flat metal slotted queen excluder. The previous ones came with a wooden queen excluder which we actually prefer - the metal one is very difficult to put in place without killing bees as there is (by design) no bee space at the top of the box once the frames are in. We ended up replacing it with a new-design plastic queen excluder from Thornes (£5) which includes some bee-space and is a lot 'softer' on the bees' bodies.Overall, as relative beginners, we have found these to be pretty good value.

This had to be modified as some of the joints did not for properly.