Wire Queen Excluder not letting workers through

How do you wash it out?

With a cold shower spray. Comes out a treat even if it’s mouldy

I use queen excluders. I would never consider not using them. For starters, it keeps the queen in the brood box & it keeps brood out of the honey frames. Provided the queen hasn’t found a gap in the QX, you have piece of mind that you wont squash the queen while inspecting the honey frames. My bees have no trouble circulating air through them. My bees are all too willing to pass through them to store honey in the honey supers.

If any beekeepers are keeping bees in SHB areas, it’s a good idea, from my experience to keep drone comb in the brood box to a minimum.

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Yes me too. I do sometimes get pollen in the supers though.
By the way, @JeffH is Buderim famous for ginger? I found some Buderim ginger on sale in a shop here in the UK :smiley:

Yes, they can get through much easier. The queen has the same problem getting through.

No problem. Bees want about 20% drone comb and they will do it if you let them. Put an empty frame in the brood nest and, if there is not enough drone comb, they will draw it all drone.

I have all the same size boxes and frames. It’s impossible for the queen to lay in a super, because if she lays in it, it’s a brood box. :slight_smile:

I’m not sure what your saying Michael. I think I get it now. Not a real good argument.

Hi Dee, yes Buderim IS famous for ginger. I hope it’s not too exy over there. If you want to treat yourself, grab a bottle of Baby Stem Ginger, if it’s available. We got given a bottle & I reckon it’s a luxury item. It’s nice & tender with no fibers. I tried to copy it last year but I picked it too late & it had almost the normal amount of sharpness. It wasn’t like the stuff in the bottle.

Ginger and Bundaberg Rum - I can’t believe my trip home was a year ago - we went to Bundy Rum

Here is another keeper/educator who doesn’t use the Queen Excluders.

It’s definitely an area of division among old time keepers.

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Yeah, well I’m on the side that loves QX’s.

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Me too. I tried no QX and ended up with a brood nest in the middle few frames through three boxes. In the uk nobody has bees in two or three langstroth equivalents so most are used to brood in just the one box

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I watched this today after you mentioned your own video showing issues with excluders. The stats about bee productivity appear to be plucked at random.

I also don’t understand the ‘which is not really true’ comment with regard to it stopping the queen laying in the supers, is that saying it doesn’t stop the queen laying in the super?

I have heard the bee wing argument before and feel it is a tired hangover from when pressed/punched metal excluders were used… If someone can come up with some proof of wing damage with metal bar style, or moulded plastic style excluders (not punched) I’d love to see it. First time I have seen it stated that the wing damage caused by an excluder halves the life of a bee… that’s a pretty wild claim.

-edit- I do want to say I love that his videos make no apologies and the disclaimer is essentially ‘this is my opinion, love it or leave it’… wish more people (especially at local clubs) were willing to speak so openly! :grinning:

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I agree with most of that
The queen won’t cross a super full of honey but you have to get that super full first without her laying in it

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Agreed.

Also if there is a dip in nectar flow and they start consuming stores you’re at risk of them moving up.

Every keeper will simply adapt their own best practices, we’re just sharing information and people may do what they will with it. It’s just not as clear cut as many would think.

Have a great day everyone!

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You are welcome to reach out beyond this forum and gather statistics from those conducting studies. The “Fat Bee Man” can also bee reached to answer your questions. They just don’t have the time for this forum. “plucked at random” I don’t think Dr Delaplane is every “random”. I will leave this forum to you, these are just practices I thought I’d share.

Not welcome, I get it.

I’m not sure why you linked my ‘plucked at random’ stats comment that was specifically about the posted video from FBM to Dr Delaplane. Dr Delaplane hasn’t been mentioned in this thread. The comment I am referring to is: “you’re going to take 10 to 30 percent of your bees and shorten their lives 50 percent”

I am not sure how I have made you feel unwelcome? I just have a differing opinion to you on QX usage… as you say above, it’s just people sharing information and people way do what they will with it.

Apologies if you feel I have been disrespectful in expressing my view.

You are definitely welcome. Who implied you weren’t?
You can’t post a comment like that though and not expect folk to discuss it.

Hi Dee, I “was” replying from within my e-mail, so may have gotten some of the discussion out of context.

It’s just one of those topics where everyone rushes out onto the gym floor, grabs up their dodge balls and gets ready to eliminate one another :slight_smile:

Generally speaking, leaves new comers confused and others entrenched in whatever practice they adopted first.

I only have so much “free time” each day, so just lost my zest for point and counter-point on Queen Excluders. Aside from hearing a lecture many years ago, I put a feeder out in the bee yard during a summer dearth. Not wanting the bumble bees to soak up the nectar before the honey bees had their chance, I just snagged a Queen Excluder off the shelf and put it on the feeder. Like many honey bee observers, I began to notice the foraging honey bees having difficulty getting through the excluder. Others of course, did get through, some easily, others had to press-through. That observation led me on an informational quest to further understand what that barrier must be doing inside the hive.

All of my hives have landing board entrances as well as upper entrances. Aside from what many may think, lots of honey bees are a little lazy. With an excluder in place, those foragers that entered through the landing board entrance, were likely to have their supplies placed right in the brood frames, while those without excluders, travelled right up into the supers with no barrier to overcome.

Workers hatching in the brood areas were not all getting through the excluder either and began their store keeping dutie down in the brood frames. They have not done any flying yet, so don’t gain access through the upper entrances. So what happens? “Most” of the colonies with excluders on, had much more honey down in the brood frames, starting with a ring around the circumference of the frames and eventually moving in as cells became available. This reduced the available cells for the queen to lay. So, aside from the lower productivity with the bees not moving so freely up and down the colony frames, brood rearing became limited.

Removed the queen excluders from those hives which were near honey-bound in the brood areas and that issue gradually went away as the upper supers began to fill more quickly.

Now, we have the flowsupers and the issue of potential laying in the flow frames presents a potential problem regarding function and cleanup. I only have three flowsuper colonies at the moment, and am giving the bees free use of the entire thing without excluders. If the Queen lays in those flow cells, then I will of course do a demonstration regarding how to cope with that issue.

Those are my thoughts, that’s my logic. annnnnd my cappuccino break is over :slight_smile:

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It’s whatever suits you. Beginners should be made aware though that should the queen lay up in a flow super it will be drone and any significant numbers of pupal cocoons may interfere with the operation of the frames.
In nature bees build an arc of honey and then pollen closest to the brood to make it quickly available to that brood nest. That is normal. You will find that even as the queen lays up into a number of boxes. The thing to do is try it and see. Lots of folk do some change and some revert to what they did before the change.[quote=“Frederick_J_Dunn, post:59, topic:6038”]
I put a feeder out in the bee yard during a summer dearth.
[/quote]

Now this practice fills UK beekeepers with horror. There are lots of beekeepers here, 75 Apiaries within 10 km of me and I am in the rural wilderness so it spreads disease.

Anyway…I should stop as I have a warning about this post…for some reason

This topic is clearly important to you – you’ve posted more than 20% of the replies here.

Are you sure you’re providing adequate time for other people to share their points of view, too?

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