# How many of you use a queen excluder?



## Bees4Us (Mar 26, 2012)

I am to the point of adding my first super on top of my 2 brood boxes! I would like to know how many of you use a queen excluder in between the super and brood box. 

I have heard that it can hurt the little worker bees when they try to get thru it, and I have heard it was a good idea to keep the queen out of the supers. So, it's a little confusing. 

I would like to hear some opinions ;-)

Thanks in advance!


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## beedeetee (Nov 27, 2004)

If you do a search here on Beesouce you will find hundreds of opinions.....every year.


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## westernbeekeeper (May 2, 2012)

Being the experimental person that I am, I have tried with and without. I seem to find that it doesn't really make a huge difference. I think they are better off with no excluder.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I use them on some hives and don't on others. Mostly I don't.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

What size boxes are your brood? Deeps or mediums? If it's two mediums, you might need more brood space. My queen might be lazy or something but she stays in the two deeps all by herself and lets the upper boxes fill up with honey. I bought some excluders but have found other uses for them.


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

Keep some around but don't use them in the traditional sense.


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## Riverratbees (Feb 10, 2010)

I use them I don't like brood in my honey is my experience.


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## sammyjay (May 2, 2011)

I don't, though I think I might have to start.


Nathan


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

Bees4Us,

My understanding is that the bees need some encouragement to pass through the excluder. Drawn comb is more attractive than foundation. Placing a frame of brood above the excluder will attract bees up into the super as well. 

I ran across another interesting technique that I might try next year. The following method (using upper entrances) is pretty elegant in its simplicity. 

The following is from Mike Thomas of Bjorn Apiaries.
http://www.bjornapiaries.com/equipmentmanagement.html



> 2) Queen Excluders
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

I only use them when doing comb honey or for queen rearing in the finisher colony to separate developing cells from the brood chambers below.


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## garyk1398 (Jan 25, 2011)

NasalSponge said:


> Keep some around but don't use them in the traditional sense.


Same here. Seems like they become more of a "honey excluder" and they become honey bound quicker.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

The world record for honey from a single hive is held by using a QE.

I like them, just gotta know how to use them.............. But again, as in many techniques in beekeeping, to each his own.............


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I do not use them for honey production.


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

I use them and put them on when the first surplus honey supers go on. When 2 brood boxes are used find the queen and put her in the bottom box, add the queen excluder, the second brood box and the surplus honey supers. Slide the first honey super to the rear 1/4 inch for an upper entrance. Because there is brood in the brood box above the excluder nurse bees pass through the excluder with no hesitation. Check the upper brood box in 7 or 8 days for started queen cells and remove any found.


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## willyC (May 6, 2010)

An observation I made yesterday is that at least one brand of plastic excluder has such small holes that bees cannot get through. I had a young lady start feeding 1:1 with the baggy method, setting the baggy on a QE I gave her. I took a peek into her hive to see how they were taking the 1:1 and was amazed see that they could not squeeze through the mesh, they were trying and 5 bees had made it. I compared the QE to another and found a large difference.


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## billk (Apr 10, 2012)

On some hives I use an excluder on other hives I do not. It depends on the laying pattern of the queen in the hive.
willyC, I too noticed that the plastic excluders seem to have smaller gaps versus the metal or wood excluders. I took the advice of Bjorn and turned the excluder 90 degrees or I cut a couple of inches off each side of the plastic exluder.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I quit using them 36 years ago...


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

I have tried with and without excluders. Without was more of a headache when pulling honey. The queen moved all the way to the top, the bees would not leave the brood, it was a cloudy day and the bee go would not go.
Excluders work if the hive is strong enough. If not, they do not work even with a frame of brood moved to the top.
Double colony hives which are not strong enough for an excluder for the flow get reduced to a single box and then the excluder.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

willyC said:


> An observation I made yesterday is that at least one brand of plastic excluder has such small holes that bees cannot get through.


What brand? Who makes it?


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## Mtn. Bee (Nov 10, 2009)

I use them for my comb honey production but not for extracted honey!


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## willyC (May 6, 2010)

snl said:


> What brand? Who makes it?


I wish I knew, I have never purchased a queen excluder yet I have two plastic and two metal.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

willyC said:


> was amazed see that they could not squeeze through the mesh, they were trying and 5 bees had made it. I compared the QE to another and found a large difference.


Doesn't sound like a queen excluder. How is it made? Parellel wires? Or screen? Whatever it is, I'd get rid of it or only use it as a screen to combine colonies or to keep nucs warm overwinter above another colony.


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## Mtn. Bee (Nov 10, 2009)

Sounds like a plastic propolis trap!?


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