Hello,
 
I met David at EAS 96 and bought from him the D.E. hive he had
on display there.  It is a beautiful piece of workmanship which
I treated with linseed oil to preserve it -- too pretty to
cover up with paint.  I put a decent-sized, but not enormous,
swarm in it in mid-May of this year.  They quickly filled two
brood chambers and went on to make two supers of honey, which
is about as much as I got from any one of my established hives in Langs.
 
The absence of propolization on the ends of the frames is a
very positive aspect of this hive.  It's easy to remove and
replace frames -- I adapted one of the the super frames above the
excluder to bank a few queens until I could install them in
other hives.  Very easy to remove and replace.
 
David's is the only NEW hive I have ever bought.  All my others
have been used or I have built many of them. If I were starting
with no equipment and buying everything new, my experience,
limited as it is to one season with one hive, would lead me to
seriously consider the D.E.
 
David's service when ordering from him is outstanding, and the
items he stocks are first-rate.
 
FWIW
 
Regards,
 
Fred
 
Augusta County, Virginia