As I put together 30-40 of the buggers last weekend and had a play with a few different suppliers I thought I'd do a quick straw poll.

Last year I bought a stack of Thornes seconds frames, never again. By time I threw out side bars with the grooves for foundation on the wrong side, or even not at all out (not a deciding factor in trying no foundation frames, honest) and wrestled with sidebars that wouldn't fit into top bars and other tales of woe I reckon I lost any saving. If I factor in my wasted time, I lost a fortune.

Handy hint from putting together the remainder last week... A dremel with the sanding attachment on it is about the perfect width for the slots on the side/top bars, so factor in another £30 or so on a tool to make the bloody things fit together

Normal Thornes frames aren't much better to be honest, you just don't seem to get missing foundation grooves, overly knotty wood but you do still get parts that don't fit together.

Maisemore: Better than Thornes for frames by a long shot imo. Sadly I think the rest of their stuff (hive parts) isn't as good as thornes.

Paynes: Bought some extra frames when I bought the poly hives and for me they're the best of the bunch so far. Stuff fits, it looks well made, they don't scatter all over the floor when you unpack the box either every things grouped by part using elastic bands and then wrapped in easy open plastic wrapping (boo!, but must less actual plastic as those industrial strength plastic packing bands everyone else seems to use).

I've never used them before, but I'm quite impressed by Paynes so far.

That's my take, anyone else?