E.H. Thorne Avis 45

Exceptional customer service and great products. I needed some ready-assembled frames in a hurry and was delighted when they arrived next day, in perfect condition. Thank you to Rebecca for all your help!

Absolutely excellent, reliable, and quick!

Two days ago I ordered 2 of the new poly Nucs and a couple of sundrie items. Everything arrived very well packaged and within roughly 48 hours of ordering.

Whilst the Apivar strips were a few pence dearer than other retailers this was more than compensated for by the fact they had virtually two years shelf life left on them rather than a few months.

In my experience over the last two or three years Thornes have been a very reliable and honest company, some of the negative reviews I’ve read are pretty ill founded and nonsensical on the face of it.

Placed order but did not arrive, spoke to customer service with order number.
It seems that Royal Mail incompetence returned a tracked item to thorns with out even attempting a delivery😔
Spoke to lovely lady and a replacement sent which I received in 2days.
My point is that speaking to thorns they can resolve anything.
A very big thanks to staff, that’s why they are my go to place for bee stuff.
👍👍🐝🐝🐝😀😀😀🚗

Great customer service - I panicked when I realised my order hadn’t gone through after all but they quickly came to my rescue and the bee smoker (great quality!) arrived in time for my brother’s birthday! Thank you!

I bought the 1-2-1 frame holder and have so far used it in 3 schools. I am aware it is not made to stand up on a table - but to hand around. I've used it with small children so I've kept it on my knee whilst they come up very close to see the bees and they absolutely love it. It is great for me as it's so lightweight and portable. I carry it in a small hardsided suitcase inside the car when I'm travelling. - warm and dark. You could leave zips open if you were concerned about airflow or it being too hot in the car, but so far I've had no problems. I don't like the metal clips. I found them very stiff to get on and off and one flew across the apiary when I tried to remove pins- in long grass - so it was long lost. However, I now use garden wire to push through the metal bar hole and wrap it around the feeder and put a few knots in making it very very secure and a pair of scissors easily removes it. I just keep garden wire in the suitcase now. I've the wire when replacing the frame. I haven't had any problems with the feeders on the top as I noted from the previous review. All in all I would thoroughly recommend it but try the clips before going to the apiary and getting frustrated. Consider garden wire if it is too difficult for you. Garden wire was an easy and secure fix for me. Children were fascinated to be able to get so close and I used a brood frame, so children even watched some baby bees emerging. I'm hoping I get a lot of use out of this.

Excellent service but the 1-2-1 viewing frame is a very poor design.

The feeding caps at top are not sealed properly and came off in my hand when I opened the cap.

With the one frame design it is very unsteady making it fall over. Had it sitting beside hive to put frame in and it fell over cracking a corner. Hadn’t even used it. 😭

Maybe consider making a wider wooden frame for the bottom to set it in to make it more steady and not top heavy. An expensive item to break before use! Unfortunately best avoiding.

Great service at a busy time.
All items arrived and securely packaged.
Fantastic communications throughout, really appreciated their time.
I see people saying Thornes don't care, this is not our experience when using Thornes, if anything they go out of their way to be super helpful.
So a massive thank you from us at Oak Apiary Honey Farm.
Joanne and Neil

I think a number of the reviews on here are rather unfair, based on the many experiences I have had.

It's not the cheapest place to buy equipment, but I've always found the service to be good and reliable. Beekeeping is not the most straightforward thing, and equipment varies enormously in size/type - unfortunately a lot of people assume it's all standard and then get annoyed when something doesn't fit. That's not the retailer's fault - and whenever I've had a doubt, I've always emailed and had a helpful reply to make sure I get what I need.

I think it's a reliable and trustworthy firm.

Very unhelpful customer service, they are happy to sell you the wrong size product and then say tough, we can sell you a hive to fit it! I absolutly won’t buy from them again. A shame because my experience on bee product providers is that they care.

I purchased a budget all in one bee suit for my daughter. The first day she wore it to tend her bees she ended up with hundreds of bees in the suit and was stung about the face and head over fifty times.

An examination of the suit showed that the four seems in the crotch had not been sewn properly leaving a hole that the bees accessed through.

The bee suit was returned with an email of complaint as this is a piece of PPE which should not fail and proper quality checks should be carried out.

Received a refund for the suit and £25 compensation for the hurt and distress to my daughter which I felt fell far short of what was required. My daughter could have died and thankfully was not allergic to bee stings but had to be observed for 24 hours and suffered the after affects for 2 weeks.
Don't buy the budget suits as they are made in India and there is no proper quality control checks in place.
I made a further complaint and received no response.
I am engaging with trading standards regarding this company.

Everything is fine but the dispatch and delivery do seem to take longer than reasonable. 2 to 3 weeks from order to delivery seems the norm. Its not a problem if youre not in need of the items. Usually things ordered online take a week at most, or a day from amazon. (Edit after response, reviews should be to give information to other customers so they are aware of a reality. Reviews should not be an invitation for the reviewed party to try and have the review changed or removed. That would be disingenuous and make reviews pointless. Thorne should take note and act on reviews rather than try to argue or tell untruths.

Lovely place very nice people everything you need for bees also try the canteen Sandra's homemade carrot cake is absolutely delicious would recommend to every cake fan

I have been dealing with Thorne for years, I have always received 5 star service and quality goods.
I was disappointed today when I phoned regarding a tap seal for a Konigin honey ripening tank. Although all Konigin ripening tanks and extractors share the same tap and seal, it doesn’t appear to be a stock part.
Being the only bit of a Konigin anybody is likely to need to replace it disappointing that the part is not a stock item.

I'm new to beekeeping and unsure of what to order sometimes but I found Gill to be amazingly helpful. she guided me toward what I needed and I eventually made the purchase.

The order itself took some time to get to the point where it was to be despatched, so I asked if I could add another item on to it, seeing as it was still being packaged.

The bad news was that I had seemingly just missed that window. The good news is that they sent me the additional item anyway and didn't charge me for the postage!

I think that is amazing service and want everyone to know that they were great at communication, the products themselves are of great quality and the attitude is very customer focussed. Thank you Thorne!

I ordered labels order number 69181 for my extracted honey which cannot be sold until I have labelled it as per regulations, my customers are waiting as have I for 10 days now.
I have emailed twice no response, went onto live chat just left hanging on line, so got through on the phone to be told that the orders for labels have been extraordinarily large this year also told that the lady that does labels does not work Fridays?
I am a very disappointed customer which will obviously change the way I order or who I order from in the future
Very disappointed Thornes.

I've been using Thornes for my beekeeping supplies for over a decade and they're good, from labels to frames, protective equipment to books, there's not much that a beekeeper needs that they don't sell and their prices are competitive. I'd recommend them to other beekeepers.

I paid nearly £10 for Royal Mail first class as I was in a hurry this was done at 11.30am on the 1st of June to receive a email at 5pm on the 2nd June to say my item had been dispatched today? Why wasn’t it sent out on the 1st? If you cannot send out the same day within reason, stop offering first class because if I’d had known I would have gone elsewhere i.e Amazon at least then I would of had it next day.

I ordered a honey extractor for £380. They took the money from my credit card and ten days later the extractor had not arrived. I called them and was told they had lost my order but it would be dispatched that day and it would arrive the following day. Three days later and I am still waiting so I called them again to cancel the delivery.
In short, they took my money and didn’t deliver the goods.
I’ve been promised a refund but I doubt I will get it and will have to take court action to recover it.
They really don’t care…..

I have been a customer of Thorne for the last 10 years and never confronted a problem such as today. When I opened the carton box of my order, there was a missing item. I called the company. The operator said that she would talk to the director. The director called after a couple of hours and said that she cannot refund because she trusts her employee, which implied that I was lying. When I insisted, she said I am sorry and then she hung up. It was very impolite and insulting.