Cedar for brood boxes

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666bees

House Bee
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Messages
229
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0
Location
Staffordshire
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3 swarms, 1 14x12 nuc, national nuc
Looking to build some brood boxes but where do people get the cedar at the right depth. The prices I've been quoted mean its cheaper to buy the things rather than make them. Do people t and g the smaller sizes together?
One price £150 for 4" x 11'.

Any contacts in the Midlands greatly appreciated.


Chris
 
Looking to build some brood boxes but where do people get the cedar at the right depth. The prices I've been quoted mean its cheaper to buy the things rather than make them. Do people t and g the smaller sizes together?
One price £150 for 4" x 11'.

Any contacts in the Midlands greatly appreciated.


Chris


You have to purchase cedar in bulk to get a decent price, and the availability is becoming limited as more and more housing / building seems to be using it as a cladding material because it ticks a few 'green' boxes.

I purchase 'commercial' broods (in the flat) for £28, it ain't worth making your own at that price, IMHO
 
I enquired at Whitmore's Timber in Claybrooke Magna and they charge about £30+vat per cubic foot for wany edge boards. That makes your 4" x 11' board about fifteen times cheaper! I'm not sure what sizes they have. I don't think they carry a huge stock of cedar.

Paul
 
I enquired at Whitmore's Timber in Claybrooke Magna and they charge about £30+vat per cubic foot for wany edge boards. That makes your 4" x 11' board about fifteen times cheaper! I'm not sure what sizes they have. I don't think they carry a huge stock of cedar.

Paul
How do you work that out to be 15 times cheaper just out of interest?
 
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How do you work that out to be 15 times cheaper just out of interest?

four feet times about 1 foot (11") times 1/12 foot (1" - about right for hives) = 1/3 cubit foot = £10ish.

Hang on a minute - I've got my feet and inches the wrong way round!

1/3 foot (4") times 11 foot times 1/12 foot = approx 1/3 cubic foot = £10ish.

It didn't matter!
 
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£30 +VAT per cubic ft, so one cubic ft could give you a board 12ft long by 1ft wide for this price,as opposed to one board 4 inches wide by 11ft for £150. Think your getting confused by the cubic ft.
 
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four feet times about 1 foot (11") times 1/12 foot (1" - about right for hives) = 1/3 cubit foot = £10ish.

Hang on a minute - I've got my feet and inches the wrong way round!

1/3 foot (4") times 11 foot times 1/12 foot = approx 1/3 cubic foot = £10ish.

It didn't matter!

they sell it by the cubic foot, does that mean the blocks are a foot wide?
 
£30 +VAT per cubic ft, so one cubic ft could give you a board 12ft long by 1ft wide for this price,as opposed to one board 4 inches wide by 11ft for £150. Think your getting confused by the cubic ft.

one cubic foot is 12ft long by 1 foot by 1 inch: £30

or

11ft by 1/3 foot(4") for £150

That is 1/3 of the wood for 5 times the price. ie 15 times more expensive (ignoring the vat and the fact that 12' is not exactly the same as 11' and assuming the original 11'x4" board is 1" thick)

Paul
 
Must be how i'm reading your above post then..............or how it's worded.

>> That makes your 4" x 11' board about fifteen times cheaper!<<
 
Okay, I confess to an *****ic typo in my original post. I though hivemaker was arguing about the number 15 but he was concerned with the word "cheaper". I meant that whitmore's is cheaper but wrote the opposite. In the immortal words of homer Simpson, "doh!

Off to bed. Brain too tired.

Paul

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
 
hi
Looking to build some brood boxes but where do people get the cedar at the right depth. The prices I've been quoted mean its cheaper to buy the things rather than make them. Do people t and g the smaller sizes together?
One price £150 for 4" x 11'.

You've answered your own question there, PM to HM, he can supply the lot beautifully built and comes in the box ready for bees, and the bees could be available as well next spring, I have some of his hives sat indoors at the moment, you cannot go wrong. Cedar is so expensive and you really do need to know about timber as the quality varies tremendously.
kev
PS I am not on HM's payroll just appreciate a well made product
 
I see that my very mild description of my own lack of intelligence has been censored! What a polite forum.

P

(really going to bed this time)
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
 
Its going to take me the next hour to work out what the word was..
 
No problem Paul........To err is human, to forgive is divine...goodnight.
 
. Cedar is so expensive and you really do need to know about timber as the quality varies tremendously.

Also worth knowing that cedar isn't cedar. Hives are made out of Red cedar, normally western red cedar Thuya plicata. A local woodman offered me a good deal on cedar, it was actually a cedar tree he'd cut down. Apparently cedar (Cedrus spp) used to be used for drawers and blanket boxes, as it repels insects. Glad I didn't buy any.
 
Looking to build some brood boxes but where do people get the cedar at the right depth. The prices I've been quoted mean its cheaper to buy the things rather than make them. Do people t and g the smaller sizes together?
One price £150 for 4" x 11'.

Any contacts in the Midlands greatly appreciated.


Chris


G E Collis & Sons
Queen Street Industrial Estate
BURNTWOOD, Staffordshire WS7 4QF
015436 86370

stock red cedar at a reasonable price, try giving them a ring......

:sifone:
 

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