Yes - Maisemore Apiaries sell second quality hives too so it's worth checking both out - it looks like the big suppliers will be having online sales to coincide with the usual convention dates this year, so keep an eye out.
Hi, Claudia.
Welcome from another Suffolk member
Better to put them together soon after they arrive, as the wood can dry and make fitting difficult.
Hedgerow honey sell Thornes and others get in touch with John he’s really helpful
Better to buy direct from Thorne: Hedgerow Honey may be lovely but an order must go from Thorne in Lincolnshire to HH in Shropshire and back to Claudia in Suffolk, so chucking out more diesel into the sky than necessary.
Where do Caddon source the timber?
bit further away than Shropshire - Canada
More reason to buy hives made from English cedar. After all, the UK moans about imported bees, so why not increase our self-sufficiency in other areas of beekeeping?
What's wrong with Welsh cedar?
sawmill up the road from me processes loads of it - I think they had a whole day or two sawing cedar only last week
Oops! Good point: if anything, it should be called British cedar.
That is one of the unfortunate marketing points with 'second quality' hive parts, I think originally when the big players started selling them, they were just that - hive parts not quite up to their rigorous quality control standards, but if you see the pallet loads of flat packs on sale at each convention now, there is no way they can be making that many 'rejects' finishto meet demand.
Cedar is not native to the UK. By buying hives made from UK cedar you are encouraging the planting of a foreign species (possibly in place of native forest) with consequences for native wildlife.
