Thornes must be feeling the slump-another sale

[Hombre]

Any chance of the rest of us - especially us new beekeepers - being let into the secret?

Dusty

Not sure if you are playing Devil's advocate or what Dusty, or indeed what you might consider to be a secret.

Consider: A large business or two expand to become the accepted major supplier in a particular field. Suddenly interest in the sector starts to grow at an unprecedented rate, putting strain on the infrastructure of the organisation/s. They can either accept that delivery times are going through the roof and customers are not getting the first quality service that they would like to offer, or they can expand, at great expense.

New plant, new premises or a combination of the two. Then along comes a chilkly wind to cool the economy and peak newbeekeelpers has just passed as the voice of the Omelet brigade fades away into the background.

Does that sound like it might leave an organisation or two looking to fill a few more orders to make sure that the revenues at least pay for the installments on the new premises or plant.

Around about early 2008 mainstream newspapers etc all started jumping on the bandwagon and repeating the mantra that the bees were in decline. This went on for two years or so and with the publicity a lot of interest was taken by the public and a large influx of new beekeepers was the restult, which started in late 2008 and continued through to the start of 2011, when the BBKA and others had to admit that far from beekeeping in the UK being in decline, that it was in fact enjoying a bit of a boom.

Boom's are just that, bubbles that can burst quite fast and second hand markets can suddenly become awash with equipment surplus to requirement. This second hand equipment will also have an effect, although probably minimal, on the main suppliers, who will sell less boxes as a result.

So where's the mystery in that? Oh, and Happy New year to you too Dusty. Just so you don't feel left out .

 

[Norton]

Yes the bubble appears to have burst!

 

[Black Comb]

Will we see sub £100 nucs again this year?

 

[VEG]

nope

 

[BeeJayBee]

I support the general anti commercial stance of the forum ....

... By all means, star out commercial sites, even though simply mentioning them, with or without stars, creates onward traffic. But

I support the forum being commercial free ..... however I really do wish there was some way for links posted to help people not being destroyed.

There seems to be some sort of inbuilt system that blocks any 'popular' links (sites that have been mentioned or referred more than so many times) and blanks out part of them. It doesn't just break the beginning of the url, it breaks the end link bit too.

Dave Cushman's site is an example. It doesn't seem to be a commercial site, is packed full of very useful information but since it's been moved it's a nightmare to navigate, yet a link to a specific page that answers somebody's question gets starred out, which is a pity, because it's a heck of a useful resource.

 

[The Cumbrian]

...

Dave Cushman's site is an example. It doesn't seem to be a commercial site, is packed full of very useful information but since it's been moved it's a nightmare to navigate, yet a link to a specific page that answers somebody's question gets starred out, which is a pity, because it's a heck of a useful resource.

It was exactly this site that I was thinking of when I mentioned people being directed to a site for help.

 

[Norton]

Looks like there will never be a surplus of bees and queens, but lots of surplus equipment from people that took and gave up beekeeping. Let's face it, it is not a cheap "hobby" and needs at least some skill to get a colony to survive a whole year. Many simply just don't have this skill.

 

[BKF Admin]

Dave Cushman's site had hundreds of links on the forum and was a great help to many beekeepers,me included,but it is no longer run by Dave(rip) so is now starred out.

I will leave it at that

 

[region2]

This **** thing is counter-productive IMHO. Blatant adverts can be moderated, helpful guidance to URLs should be allowed (lots of people use the Internet these days) and broken links do render some useful answers pointless. So please let the moderators moderate and allow words like Thornes and Paynes and BBKA exist as they form a large part of the beekeepers' world.

R2
ps. Humans know that Scunthorpe is a place, a 'puter thinks it's rude!

 

[borderer]

R2
ps. Humans know that Scunthorpe is a place, a 'puter thinks it's rude![/QUOTE]

Same problem with Cumbria

 

[Norton]

The point is that commercial advertising is NOT permitted on this forum. For example Hivemaker, Tom Bick, Chris Broad, myself and any another other person who makes most, or all, of his income from bees are not allowed to advertise their products, even though they are active members and in one way or another make a large contribution to it.

The large companies get a lot of free publicity for their sales and in a round about way for all their products, but give NO positive input to this forum at all. It is quite obvious, that some third parties are active on behalf of these large companies. As the market shrinks for the hardware, we can expect an increasingly aggressive marketing strategy by them.

I do not know what the answer is, but the playing field is uneven.

 

[BBG]

helpful guidance to URLs should be allowed (lots of people use the Internet these days) and broken links do render some useful answers pointless. So please let the moderators moderate and allow words like Thornes and Paynes and BBKA exist as they form a large part of the beekeepers' world.

Go here

http://tinyurl.com/create.php?url=about:blank

Follow instructions and you can put T-url on your toolbar bookmarks at top of your browser window.

When on a page you want to Tinyurl - click on bookmark and it gives the Tinyurl

Follow instructions - dead easy

R2
ps. Humans know that Scunthorpe is a place, a 'puter thinks it's rude!

Yes, it probably does. That maybe due to your 12 year old son/grandson 'resetting' the parental guidance feature after he's finished using the computer.

They do this to ensure continuance of that cosy feeling parents get from 'knowing their children/grandchildren can't look at porn - even though "little Jimmy would never do such a thing". Of course!

 

[Dishmop]

I have found that if you google something bee related the result will show up to be on this forum and/or Dave Cushmans site.

 

[The Cumbrian]

R2
ps. Humans know that Scunthorpe is a place, a 'puter thinks it's rude!

Same problem with Cumbria[/QUOTE]

That would account for why when I made my one and only foray into the "bar" my name was shown as Cum*****

 

[borderer]

Same problem with Cumbria

That would account for why when I made my one and only foray into the "bar" my name was shown as Cum*****[/QUOTE]

This has always seemed odd to me. That the censor takes an innocuous word such as Cumbria and turns it into something that might be considered rude

 

[alanf]

The point is that commercial advertising is NOT permitted on this forum. For example Hivemaker, Tom Bick, Chris Broad, myself and any another other person who makes most, or all, of his income from bees are not allowed to advertise their products, even though they are active members and in one way or another make a large contribution to it.

The large companies get a lot of free publicity for their sales and in a round about way for all their products, but give NO positive input to this forum at all. It is quite obvious, that some third parties are active on behalf of these large companies. As the market shrinks for the hardware, we can expect an increasingly aggressive marketing strategy by them.

I do not know what the answer is, but the playing field is uneven.

Good points.

For what it's worth I don't know the answer either. But I do think the forum has a working compromise. A commercial company cannot be expected to participate in every forum that mentions them. One or two may consider it here but they wouldn't in a Polish or Danish forum, just as Polish or Danish hive suppliers don't contribute all over Europe.

The contributions of yourself and other commercial operators add a wealth of practical background that I think most of us with limited experience appreciate and respect. Those of us who have experience outside beekeeping might also have something relevant from time to time to contribute.

There is the unfortunate technical aspect that name checks and links encourage the more unscrupulous operators to sprinkle posts with them. Mentions of non specialist suppliers such as supermarkets, booksellers and DIY are allowed. There may be a case for banning them too but the assumption must be that they are either too big or not specific enough in range to worry about.

As it stands there are enough mentions by others that anyone who reads for a while has an idea what the commercial operators on here supply. Most is positive by customers and actually counts for more than blatant advertising with the intelligent bunch on this forum. PM is available to find out more if you're buying. Perhaps the rules should go a little further and allow a trading name or website in the personal profile, I wouldn't object to that.

One gotcha to be aware of is that where suppliers do participate in a 3rd party forum, and it happens a lot in computing and technical, it is mostly complaints. Participation is more damage limitation than advertising.

Overall, I do think contributions do count for more than you might be aware of on the surface. That larger firms get mentions of sales might be unfair, but may actually reduce the overall profit if it directs non-sale purchases to sale times.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

Can I request we put Tescos in the 'filter' then please

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

It is quite obvious, that some third parties are active on behalf of these large companies. As the market shrinks for the hardware, we can expect an increasingly aggressive marketing strategy by them.

I do not know what the answer is, but the playing field is uneven.

Not sure who these 3rd parties are you allude to, pretty sure that Big T wouldn't bother with anything like that, and knowledge of their sale is very useful to many UK beekeepers. Similarly discussions about new kit coming to market from other manufacturers is of interest to many, especially when its a type of kit not previously seen.

Enough folks also extol the virtues of HM and Tom B's hives, or your queens. Would hate to see you all starred out.

Apart from the odd very blatant piece of advertising (which is normally dealt with most effectively) , most of the name dropping is helpful to the rest of us.

 

[Black Comb]

-

Eloquently put MA.

 

[colinrelf]

Thxxnes

I guess that's the way the forum spell's it. It does seem many here like to knock them, as a newbee of around 10 years experience and some with my late father this company have always been very helpful and of assistance to myself and friends who I've brought into beekeeping. I too have shopped around only to be let down by equipment of sub-standard spec along with half completed order's. There may be new companies out there of the same good standard's and ones I would use too. If someone can tell me who they are I would be most grateful. Good luck to all beekeeping companies, most of us need to use them.