Question about buying Established Hive?

If you know the guy fairly well and know he's not a crook go ahead and buy them. If the wood isn't rotten with the pieces falling apart and there are lots of bees with open brood I would think it's a good deal. Were these bees actually a "wild" swarm, one that came out of a bee tree or somewhere else and *not* from one of his hives or someone elses hives? Ask him if this was a feral/survivor swarm. Feral/survivors make good bees! Of course, if it came from one of his hives and he keeps good bees, well, these oughta be good bees, too!

As others have mentioned, you're basically paying for an upper priced nuc of bees but getting lots more.

In regards to disease, that will be a tough one for someone new to figure out (I've been keeping bees for three years and it would be hard for me, though I'd figure it out by studying some) Basically, the big things are chalkbrood, American Foulbrood, European Foulbrood, mites, and small hive beetles. Look for cells with white, chaulky looking dead bees in them for chaulkbrood. Ooey, gooey, sticky, black stuff for AFB...stick a stick in it and if sticks to the stick and makes a string/rope as you pull the stick out it's pretty much going to be foulbrood. I'm not sure about EFB. Mites...if they're bad you can actually see them stuck on the bees, you can find them in sealed drone brood (which isn't highly unusual), but you can tell if it's really bad and that the hive is in danger if you spot bees with deformed wings which represent "Deformed Wing Virus". Beetles are invevitable in the south, there are probably some in the hive...be prepared for them....have a couple of Beetle Jail Jr.s or Beetle Blasters to put between the frames inside the hive...use some mineral or vegetable oil in them.

Apprently you've been in the hive...were they calm bees? Defensive? Calm bees are *really* nice to have...especially just starting out.

Ed

I just sold an 8 frame complete hive with 5 medium boxes yesterday. It was a strong hive with bees all the way up in to the 5th box. one box of honey and the brood up into the third box. $330. So there is a comparison price.

A brand new bottom board. ten empty fraems, deep box inner and outer cover form Mann Lake is $75. You can ad another $13 for the second deep and a buck a piece at least for the additional frames. So for me it would be nearly $100 in equipment alone adjusted for it's condition.

As for the population you are describing. It sounds to me like the bees are behind. This could be for many reasons. My colonies range from thriving and making some honey to barely hanging on. we found one dead out yesterday in an outyard. I suspect supercedure to be the main reason for the weak colonies. Leaving the colonies with populations to low to effectively forage in the drought conditions. I also suspect the weaker colonies are being robbed by the stronger ones. The strong colonies are managing to store honey. So far not enough to harvest.