BeeCastle10-Frames Complete Beehive Kit, 100% Beeswax Coated Bee Hive Includes Beehive Frames and Beeswax Coated Foundation Sheet (2 Layer)

The IMPROVED model is WORTH EVERY penny and includes EVERYTHING needed for a bee home. If you are looking for the perfect gift anyone would love, look no further. You can easily be a hero with this. HIGH QUALITY. SMELLS amazing! I had bees inspecting it before I got finished putting it together. Your bees will LOVE their home! EASY assembly. The pre-drilled holes make it easy to attach screws by hand. AND it makes it simple to know where to put them, even if you have never built a bee hive. They even included easy to understand instructions. Doubt you will need them. Dovetail ends fit each other perfectly. This hive would be a dream come true for ANY beekeeper for Christmas or Special gift. And YES, you can get the body together in minutes. Slap a red bow and slide under the tree. You WILL be a hero. If I got this as a gift, it's so beautiful that I would put it on display on porch while I waited for bees to arrive in Spring! I originally bought the previous model in 2020, and I was not impressed. Scathing review. Nails cracked wood. You look at the pics and you can see what I mean. The prior model was a flop out of the box. I didn't know what I was doing and put nails in wrong spot, splitting wood. The old model didnt have instructions. But this NEW improved model they are selling... it's PERFECT for even a new keeper. Wax coating thicker. It's like a completely different hive. I will give the old model credit. The wax smelled great to bees. I put it on a ladder under a tree, facing driveway, and it lured a HUGE feral swarm in April 2022. The wax coating smells perfect to bees. You can watch the video of the swarm on youtube. (search for #JustBees). I will be uploading a full video of me assembling this. It takes time to edit and upload, and I didn't want a bad review sitting on the most PERFECT hive. This is DEFINITELY on the top of my wish list for my #1 ultimate gift. I want my bee yard full of these beautiful hives. Flowers is bloom, butterflies, bees, and these beautiful hives. Thank You BeeCastle for putting together something that works as good as it looks.Note: the frames inside require a hammer and the instructions recommend you glue before hammering. If this is a gift, just let the beekeeper put them together. The plastic foundation is WELL coated with beeswax. They may or may not chose to use it. They are easy and fast to assemble. 4 nails per frame. Holes are not pre-drilled but might help on frames too. Minor issue. All parts of this hive kit were interchangeable with a 10 frame standard langstroth hive.You absolutely cannot go wrong buying this. 5 stars.

For what you get - two boxes, medium and deep frames, queen excluder, entrance reducer, inner & outer top, and bottom board - you can't really beat it. The wood is good quality overall. The boxes and exteriors are waxed, the frames are not. One frame side slat had a broken piece that I just glued back in place. Otherwise, everything in the shipping box checked out. I noticed that there was only one size of screws in the screws bag - unlike what some other reviewers mentioned about longer and shorter screws. Didn't seem to matter, as they all went into place without incident. I even had a honey bee flying around the deep box as I was assembling the super. ("Not yet," I told her.)This thing is not a complicated build. Putting together all the frames was tedious, but not difficult. Also, the parts only fit one way, so if something looks like it doesn't line up or fit correctly, you've got it positioned wrong. I would also recommend using glue in the frame parts connecting the top bar to the side slats, as you only get a bag of small nails for the frames. Point of emphasis here for novice nailers: Don't be "tap-tap" tentative when nailing the frames together. Be deliberate with your nail whacking and you'll get better results. To put the walls of the boxes together, I used a board and a rubber mallet to evenly knock them in place. (Don't bother with glue for the boxes, as they are waxed.) I used a power drill for the screws, here, but you could hand screw these in place.Now, the long wait for spring...

The media could not be loaded. This is a great product for the price. The box comes coated is wax. Easy assembly and,quality materials. So far I'm loving it.

The media could not be loaded. This is a standard 10 frame langstroth hive. I tried some equipment I have from other manufacturers and it was all compatible. I would rate the lumber as commercial grade or better. Some knots but none loose, no knots in hand holds. The joinery for the deep in medium are *DOVETAILS* instead of the standard box joint and they went together easily and are nice and tight, very impressive. Just a note that these are waxed so you wont be able to paint them or finish in another way. The frames were excellent, perfectly clear lumber, good fit. The foundation has a good coating of beeswax, I would use as is without adding more as is a common practice with plastic foundation. The only thing that could possibly be considered a negative that I saw was that there are no pilot holes for the nails for assembling the boxes but I use a pneumatic crown staples for that anyways, same with the frames. The cover and bottom board are fully assembled. For the beginner this is an awesome setup. The only other items you would need are a feeder, protective gear, tools and a mite treatment method. I like it!

Overall seems like a good product. Easy to put together and looks beautiful. Love the bees wax frames and coating on the wood. Just a few issues with some cracking at the wood in certain spots where screwed in and there was a screw through the lid on one but the other box was good.

Great quality and easy to put together!

I'm so thankful we got these! They are nice and sturdy and assembled easily. We will be purchasing again. I don't know why others said it was difficult. It's just like a big puzzle. Some pieces you have to bump together more, but that's to be expected if you want it to fit snugly. We did have one frame break-but that's because we dropped it. And we just glued it back together fine. the frame material is a softer wood, just make sure you don't nail right next to the edge and you're good. Perfect starter hive :)