Poly hive prices in Uk and Finland

[Stiffy]

Economising on smokers is a big error.

That one looks like a far east copy of a Mann Lake one..which is very similar to a Dadant.

If they DONT have the wire guards UNDER the barrel....and this one and the Mann Lake don't....they are lethal to a poly hive even if just set down on top very briefly.

We used Mann Lake ones for one season only before returning to the Dadant ones, and still have the circular melted depressions in some of the hives lids to show for it....impossible to closely watch what 9 or 10 people do with their smokers that was ok the season before.

The UK price for the big beast Dadants...our preferred smoker....are eye watering. Again an association option would be to buy them by the case (12), collect them from certain continental based traders at Tradex, and get them for about 20 quid, or less.

The other ones shown earlier in this thread seem to be a copy of the European Rauchboy smoker.....not one we liked at all, and as with all copies the savings can be on material spec, not just cheaper labour in Asia.

Made a nice round hole in Poly Nuc lid last year with one, did I swear !!!!!!! Paid a bit more and bought a decent one afterwards.

 

[Finman]

Hard to locate rotten birch in sufficient quantity over here Finman.
I recall Finland being heavily forested with Birch trees.
Not using wood shavings again. As you saythere is just too much tar produced.

We have lots of rotten birches here along road sides. What I need is take an example how good it is to burn. Then I take more.. Now I have 5 years store, 10 metres from my cottage property.

Often rotten birch stumps are good too.

 

[Hivemaker.]

We have lots of rotten birches here along road sides.

And here, plus woodlands with thousands of them in, not all rotten though.

 

[Thymallus]

Mainly Forestry Commission spruce plantations around here. Not much original woodlands left, main ones are over near Dalby and T'other side of moors. Occasional Birch, but not as much as you would like for rotten wood collecting
Lot of Western Red cedar, which is good for fire-wood.

 

[sipa]

Use equipment of a universal standard so you can source from a large supplier base.

Plan your requirements well in advance and buy at a slack time for the suppliers.

Ignore any supplier unwilling to negotiate, they are the root of the problem of high prices and don't deserve your business.

If you buy on payment terms pay promptly or negotiate hard for an immediate payment. Cash is king.

Buy cooperatively to gain volume worthy of substantial supplier discounts.

You can always trade-on any surplus.

 

[Finman]

And here, plus woodlands with thousands of them in, not all rotten though.

We too, not all rotten.
.
Many of you use rotten oak.

 

[Thymallus]

How rotten does it want to be?
I remembered we had some Birch trees at the top of the escarpment. Been and gathered a bag load of crumble by hand stuff.
Fed up of tarry stuff.

 

[Millet]

How rotten does it want to be?
I remembered we had some Birch trees at the top of the escarpment. Been and gathered a bag load of crumble by hand stuff.
Fed up of tarry stuff.

On the few occasions i used the smoker this year i started it of with pine chippings to get a base fire going and topped it up with dry hay, it only burned for just over 1hr but that is long enough for me with the added bonus of no sticky creosote ..

 

[beebot]

Economising on smokers is a big error.

That one looks like a far east copy of a Mann Lake one..which is very similar to a Dadant.

If they DONT have the wire guards UNDER the barrel....and this one and the Mann Lake don't....they are lethal to a poly hive even if just set down on top very briefly.

We used Mann Lake ones for one season only before returning to the Dadant ones, and still have the circular melted depressions in some of the hives lids to show for it....impossible to closely watch what 9 or 10 people do with their smokers that was ok the season before.

The UK price for the big beast Dadants...our preferred smoker....are eye watering. Again an association option would be to buy them by the case (12), collect them from certain continental based traders at Tradex, and get them for about 20 quid, or less.
s
The other ones shown earlier in this thread seem to be a copy of the European Rauchboy smoker.....not one we liked at all, and as with all copies the savings can be on material spec, not just cheaper labour in Asia.

Does me fine - Going into 6th season -burns fine gives smoke - it ain't rocket science. I am not out all day with a smoker so the miner irritation I can put up with

 

[Finman]

.
Lidl's pink toalet paper is good to start fire in smoker.
.

 

[Millet]

.
Lidl's pink toalet paper is good to start fire in smoker.
.

Before or after you have used it..and why pink would any colour not work.. lol

 

[Finman]

Before or after you have used it..and why pink would any colour not work.. lol

did I say brown? Lol.

Pink has 4 layers.
.keeps fingers pink (not brown)
.

 

[eddyh]

did I say brown? Lol.

Pink has 4 layers.
.keeps fingers pink (not brown)
.

 

[For want of a better word]

.
Lidl's pink toalet paper is good to start fire in smoker.
.

Donkey poo is still the number one smoker fuel.. old cedar hives number two !!


Maybee lost in translation!

Nos da

 

[pargyle]

Well if you will go to your easiest supplier............

I get them for less than Finmans prices.

UK's big problem is a tiny and deeply fragmented market. Everybody wants their own favourite variant, inventory levels at dealers are thus far too high of slow moving stock, and orders are so small it costs a lot to service them.

I bang the same drum again and again....stop being so individualistic and do association purchasing. Get quotes from a lot of places and don't be parochial. You might be amazed.

It costs the trader just about the same to service a two hive client as a 100 hive client and they need their time paying for. The headline prices are for the small order, and a good bit of the price is a handling charge effectively.

Yes ... the laws of supply and demand... the economies of supplying any product in bulk with a single shipment, single payment and single delivery point will nearly always be attractive to a supplier and result in healthy discounts.

However ... you've hit the nail on the head .. try and get any two beekeepers to agree on anything and you will be lucky, let alone trying to get them to use the same hives and buy them at the same time !!

I've suggested bulk buying to my association in the past and all I got was 'we've tried that in the past but it didn't work'...

I think the problem is that it takes a fair bit of organising and coordination and from my experience the poor beggar doing the organising and coordination spends hours and hours of his (or her) time (and occasionally money) for the privilege of saving other people money or chasing them for payment and then taking all the flak when someone discovers there's only 998 frame pins in the box that's supposed to have 1000 in there.

 

[Finman]

Donkey poo is still the number one smoker fuel.. old cedar hives number two !!


Maybee lost in translation!

Nos da

I think that losses are more on medical side than on cornucopia.

.

 

[Into the lions den]

Does me fine - Going into 6th season -burns fine gives smoke - it ain't rocket science. I am not out all day with a smoker so the miner irritation I can put up with

There is no reason at all that a lighter spec smoker should not be perfectly adequate in a lighter useage situation. Just so long as they do not get really hot, which is one of the times a light spec can cause issues as they are easy to deform.

My father hardly ever used one of the big smokers such as I preferred (Dadant 10" Big Smoke) as he said they made his forearms sore after a full day. He used much smaller Steele and Brodie copper ones all his days....and he had pretty well retired by the time S & B went their way....he is 96 now so we are talking a while back.

The spill over into fuels for smokers that has been going on is of interest in the distant future. Acquiring part of the contents of the scrap store of an old jute mill means we probably have enough in stock for another 10 years or so.

Frames also have come up. Our last frame order came from Romania and are completely knot free Langstroth deep frames. Fully assembled, eyelets fitted, cross wired with stainless steel wire, bundled and delivered. 79p each. But then it was a truckload of over 20,000. Wire a bit stretchy so need rewiring after first comb change, so will specify, or even supply, high tensile hard drawn wire next time. There is often some sort of downside to a bargain.

 

[Finman]

.
I noticed that in Finland wooden frame , wired and waxed £ 1.90 / piece in a 10 frame bunch.

It seems that we are a banana state.

 

[nantmoel]

Thanks for posting the various prices, I am one who reads posts and if I have a constructive comment I add it, I think its good to compare prices from different parts of the world. I find there are individuals here who are far too keen to disrupt posts.

I'll sit back and wait for the flack to arrive.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

and some who are far too sanctimonious