Super cheap cedar nationals

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Dishmop said:
l

The fact that they may appear to be shipped from the USA doesnt mean they were made there. They may never have been in the USA. Half the stuff from Europe/UK for sale on ebay comes from Pakistan/India/China etc.
You can buy hives from China for a few £..and frames for pennies.. but you have to buy a minimum amount................and then flog the excess on ebay.
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I believe they are made in Minnesota - quote below from The Pilot Independent, a newspaper in Walker, Minnesota:-



"Mann Lake Ltd. in Hackensack, the nation’s largest manufacturer and distributor of beekeeping products and supplies, recently hired 46 new employees.

The job fair was held to fill full-time shipping/receiving, wood plant production and warehouse/packer positions through Mann Lake Ltd.’s busy season. Order volume begins to increase in February and strengthens through June, as beekeepers gear up for the year’s production.

Human Resources Manager Vicki Nation said some new hires have already started work and the rest will be on board by mid-February. She said another 10 to 20 positions may be added in the next six months, depending on workload. Mann Lake Ltd. currently has about 150 employees."
 
mintmoth said:
I believe they are made in Minnesota - quote below from The Pilot Independent, a newspaper in Walker, Minnesota:-



"Mann Lake Ltd. in Hackensack, the nation’s largest manufacturer and distributor of beekeeping products and supplies, recently hired 46 new employees.

The job fair was held to fill full-time shipping/receiving, wood plant production and warehouse/packer positions through Mann Lake Ltd.’s busy season. Order volume begins to increase in February and strengthens through June, as beekeepers gear up for the year’s production.

Human Resources Manager Vicki Nation said some new hires have already started work and the rest will be on board by mid-February. She said another 10 to 20 positions may be added in the next six months, depending on workload. Mann Lake Ltd. currently has about 150 employees."
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Doubtless, Mann Lake manufacture at least some of their products in the US of A.
Whether they might be manufacturing their "national" products there is a much more specific question …
 
itma said:
Doubtless, Mann Lake manufacture at least some of their products in the US of A.
Whether they might be manufacturing their "national" products there is a much more specific question …
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If they are I would imagine it might be with dovetails like the Langstroths as the tooling and skill set would already be in place, having said that I doubt it is a big change to make nationals the "normal way".

As for quality it appears they have 2 grades of timber so you pays your money and takes your chance. I have found the beekeeping lot strange, many seem happy to buy "seconds" or mistakes / rejects in other industries to save a few bob and it seems the suppliers are happy to sell them. Maybe if a lot less people bought the seconds the suppliers might take a deal more care in their procurement / manufacturing if the cost of mistakes were higher to them from lack of market, rather than them knowing fine well the cost is nothing or weirdly a smaller profit because can't supply the demand.
 
Langstroths with dovetails? Box joints more like!

Seconds have two origins - either made of less than perfect parts in the normal run of timber (either a fault in the wood, a knot, or parts close to spec at machine set-up) or they are made with cheaper material of lower specification. Take your choice.
 
oliver90owner said:
Langstroths with dovetails? Box joints more like!

Seconds have two origins - either made of less than perfect parts in the normal run of timber (either a fault in the wood, a knot, or parts close to spec at machine set-up) or they are made with cheaper material of lower specification. Take your choice.
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Fair enough, don't really know myself being ignorant and not using them just seem them in pictures and thought on cursory glance they were dovetails, as I suspect most none joinery people did.

As being new I am fairly sure I am not the only to have bought frames that are wrong fit etc. and find a shrug of the shoulders off the supplier, thats all we have or its supposed to be that way, your box is wrong is a few I've been given. Unless I have to I simply don't bother with them anymore, I hasten to add there are a couple which are totally opposite.

People want to buy carp its up to them, I just don't see the reason to clamour for it though, it just promotes laziness poor quality from the suppliers imho.
 
thebeeman said:
Patrick who runs the UK Mann Lake has been keeping bees for years and years and he`s not American ( I don`t think so with his Accent) Most people would just be happy that this will force prices down to a level they should be at and not making people like Th&&es rich but you can`t help some people
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In the year to 31 December 2013, Companies House reports that Thornes lost money.
 
thebeeman said:
Patrick who runs the UK Mann Lake has been keeping bees for years and years and he`s not American ( I don`t think so with his Accent) Most people would just be happy that this will force prices down to a level they should be at and not making people like Th&&es rich but you can`t help some people
Click to expand...

Ah I see- so his setting up this company is purely philanthropic - not about making money at all
 
Hebeegeebee said:
In the year to 31 December 2013, Companies House reports that Thornes lost money.
Click to expand...
Not sure when it would hit the finances but Thornes had a major overhaul of their computer systems about then. SAP enterprise management software is not cheap to buy or implement.
 
mbc said:
Hard work deserves a bit of profit.
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:iagree:
but let's not make out that it's anything else but a person setting up a business to make money. Unless these 'super cheap' hive parts turn out to be 'super good quality' the price is not much different to the second quality stuff available to us already. By what i can see the prices of everything else are no different to the other sites.
 
jenkinsbrynmair said:
:iagree:
but let's not make out that it's anything else but a person setting up a business to make money. Unless these 'super cheap' hive parts turn out to be 'super good quality' the price is not much different to the second quality stuff available to us already. By what i can see the prices of everything else are no different to the other sites.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
 
itma said:
Doubtless, Mann Lake manufacture at least some of their products in the US of A.
Whether they might be manufacturing their "national" products there is a much more specific question …
Click to expand...

I emailed to check, specifying UK imports. Their reply:-

Hi,

All of our lumber is USA sourced. Almost all of it is from Oregon, with some coming from Minnesota.

Happy New Year!

Ed Waggoner l Mann Lake Ltd.
 
mintmoth said:
I emailed to check, specifying UK imports. Their reply:-

Hi,

All of our lumber is USA sourced. Almost all of it is from Oregon, with some coming from Minnesota.

Happy New Year!

Ed Waggoner l Mann Lake Ltd.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mintmoth. That does it for me. No significant price advantage and a far less sustainable source as it has to be transported much further.
 
farbee said:
No significant price advantage and a far less sustainable source as it has to be transported much further.
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If your talking western red cedar, then it is from a very sustainable source, the natural home of western red cedar.
 
Hivemaker. said:
If your talking western red cedar, then it is from a very sustainable source, the natural home of western red cedar.
Click to expand...

Not if it is being transported accross the atlantic its not (if you are talking about the actual end product being used in the UK). The sustainibility then includes the carbon footprint of the transport costs. Unless of course they are going to use a green fuel such as biodiesel which is highly improbable.
 
farbee said:
Not if it is being transported accross the atlantic its not (if you are talking about the actual end product being used in the UK). The sustainibility then includes the carbon footprint of the transport costs. Unless of course they are going to use a green fuel such as biodiesel which is highly improbable.
Click to expand...

Well, that includes almost everything we import into this country, which is most things, including most of the quality western red cedar for making beehives. It has not been grown in this country for very long.
 
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