What was your experience with the flow queen excluder?

Equipment
1

I am considering buying the flow queen excluder however I am reading many negative reports about queen excluders, And so I would like to hear about your experiences with the flow queen excluder.

Thanks in advance.

2

I don’t use plastic QEs. I can talk about 2 former clients of mine. Two brothers, one brother’s QE cracked on both sides after 18 months. The cracks opened up which let the queen through, resulting in brood in the Flow frames. Shortly after, the other brother’s QE buckled which also resulted in the queen finding a gap large enough to fit through, resulting in brood in the Flow frames as well.

Metal QEs are a hundred percent better, however queens can find gaps in them as well as indicated by my photos.

These are some of the excluders I repaired recently. The first photo shows multiple gaps all through the excluder. The second photo shows gaps that were repaired quite a few years ago, with 2 new gaps that needed repairs. The third photo shows a gap all the way down the length of the excluder, plus one near the corner.

Once I find the gaps, I fill them with Plastibond. Once the gaps are filled, I have very little trouble with them, unless more gaps appear as in the second photo.

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I have a piece of wood shaped in such a way that it wont go through normal gaps, however it will go through gaps big enough for the queen to fit through. It’s tedious work, but it’s worth doing.

Whenever I find a queen above a QE, I always find a gap to fill. In saying that, I’m saying that I never put the queen back down to the brood box & continue with that QE before repairing it.

3

Thanks for the advice and tip👍, I will take a look at some metal queen excluders. (If you don’t mind could you please tell me where you got them from).

4

I bought the old one locally & I think it was manufactured locally, here in S.E. Qld. Au. The other 2 belong to other people, which I think will finish up being mine. I’m pretty sure they are made in China. Out of 6 QEs that belong to a client, only 2 didn’t need fixing.

Regardless of which QEs you use, I strongly recommend to physically inspect the frames before harvest. It’s only when I find brood above a QE that I inspect them closely to find the gap/s to fill.

PS, Correction: the top one comes from China, the other 2 are made locally…

5

I use a metal one as find the bees are able to slip through easily with the round metal bars rather than the plastic.

6

Thanks for the help, will do

1 Like
7

Thanks for the advice