if the bees and hive are in good condition and you can afford to pay that much then yes, it is a good price.
I paid £250 for my brand new national hive (full beginners kit from thornes, included full body suit, hive tools etc) plus £160 for a nuc of bees last year, but the thing you would need to be sure of is that the hive and bees are disease free.
The chances are that if this guy has kept bees for 30 years then they probably are healthy but you would need to be sure for yourself.
Of course, if you aren't already a BBKA (British BeeKeepers Association) member and a member of your loca association then I'd join up straight away. your local BKA will sort out your membership with the BBKA (£20 for a years membership and you get regular magazines, access to the BBKA online forum, and up to £5 Million cover in case your bees go on a rampage and hurt people etc) and people at the local association will be ready and I hope willing to give advice on hive management.
I got my bees last year and they've just swarmed despite my best efforts, so my advice to you would be buy a second hive as soon as you possibly can so that you can do an artificial swarm (you'll learn how to do that from your association and various other sources) to prevent, or at least lessen the chances, of this happening to you.
Mine swarmed because I was lazy and didn't check them one weekend when I had the chance and in the meantime they had tried to raise another 10 queens - all of whom would have swarmed off with groups of my bees if I hadn't removed them. In the end just my original queen was left to swarm, but it means I've lost half of my bees and I don'thave a queen (until hopefully this afternoon and not a moment too soon - queenless bees can be very agressive
)
The other reason to get another hive asap is so that you can properly clean out the old hive and get rid of any pests like earwigs, varroa mites and wax moths that might take residence in the hive. A blowtorch is a must but be careful with it for obvious reasons, but there are other methods as well.
THornes are the place to buy your equipment direct from online (
www.thornes.co.uk) but they can take weeks to despatch to you so if you can afford to wait then go direct, however there are a few beekeeping supplies in Yorkshire and Stockton who will have parts in stock for you to pick up there and then. I'm off to Stockton this afternoon to get a new brood chamber and super from my supplier rather than wait 2 weeks for Thornes to send them.
Sorry for going on, but if someone had said these things to me last year when I got my bees I might not have made so many mistakes!
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June 01, 2010, 23:13