Complete beginner's questions

[litotes]

Hi All,

I am planning on purchasing my first colony of bees in the next two weeks.  A friend of the family introduced me to a guy that produces honey commercially.  He offered to sell me the following (this is from memory):

Queen
Bees (not sure how many)
Hive

I did not get round to asking him what type of hive, I have only just finished the first book I bought on bees and so I didn't even know there are different types.  Anyway, I'll come to the questions:

From memory the brood box contained only 8 frames.  Each of these was wired horizontally.  There was no foundation in the any of the frames.  I seem to remember him telling me that the brood box was not complete and that there was space for ten frames.  If none of the frames contained foundation, I assume that the sale does not include foundation.

This is where the confusion begins.  Do I have to use foundation?  I assume that he will simply transfer a colony into the hive he intends to sell me.  In which case, if I decide to use foundation, is it ok to take out the frames, perhaps one by one, once I have correctly sited the hive, and insert the foundation?  I guess I can't buy the foundation now since I have no idea what type of hive it is? 

No more questions for now, I am sure I will have more.

Thanks in advance for any help given.

[likes2grill]

I would make sure of what I was buying so that I would know what I needed to get for the bees to come home. A lot less hassle if everything is there to set them up right.

[KONASDAD]

Last year I bought a "complete" hive for $70. It was a deep , queenright, ten frames, bottom board and telescoping top. It is possible he is selling you a hive w/o foundation, and it may be a "package" you are buying and installing in an empty hive he is providing. If thats the case, I would use all new equipment and install on new to avoid any inherited problems. If it is a complete hive w/ drawn foundation, all the better. Good Luck. Dont be afraid to ask questions and get as much info as you can. Starting w/ two hives is also a plus.

[Mici]

i see you're from italy, so...i don't know about italy but round here, you actually can't buy package bees, and i think that most of the europe is pretty much the same, packages are somewhat USA thing (i think so!!).

my guess is he wants to sell you a bee colony, that is an established bee colony on...7-10 frames, most probably LR hive. so it's not the number of bees that count it's more the number of brood frames!
before you jump into buying it, i suggest you find an italian beek forum, to get informed on bee-colony price. and if you have on, get a bee magazine or something, it has to have a "small sales" article. or if you have an italian online "flee market". anyway get informed about the price!

before you go to a shop with bee-stuff try to get EVERYTHING you might need in head so you don't have to go like 1 milion times (like i am).
search this forum a bit, you might find out that you won't need foundation, at least not all that much, but still eventually you're gonna need it.

and like Konasdad pointed out, it's better to have 2 hives, at least you can compare!