BEST KIND OF QUEEN EXCLUDERS

[GABE]

I have read the arguments about whether queen excluders are really honey excluders, but if I do decide to use excluders, they apparently come in all metal, wood and metal or all plastic and there is considerable difference in Price,with the all plastic being the least expensive. I would appreciate comments or reccommendations. I remember reading that the plastic were easy to clean. Are there other considerations besides price?

[Michael Bush]

They all violate beespace.

The unbound ones (plastic or metal) are too little space and get propolized to both sides but mostly to the top bars below. When you peal the plastic ones off a lot of bees take to the air. When you pry the metal ones off there is less disruptions and bees in the air.

The bound ones have too much beespace and get burred. The burring is easier to break than the propolis is. I like the bound ones the best. But then I don't use excluders much at all anymore.

Another up side of the bound ones, is you're less likely to forget and leave one on going into winter because you can SEE it from the outside. Especially if you paint them some bright noticable color (Jim Fischers ideaa). Leaving an excluder on around here usually results in a dead queen when the bees move up into the box above and leave the queen behind.

If you want to use it as a queen "discourager" by turning it 90 degrees you want an unbound one, but then you can see it sticking out and it doesn't discourage the bees so much from working the super above but it discourages the queen from moving up.

[BubbaBob]

I use metal bound.

BubbaBob

[Jim Fischer]

I have a large stock of the wood-bound metal type,
(and as Michael said, they are all painted garish
colors) but I do have a few of the plastic ones,
and they work just fine too. I added a double layer
of day-glo orange duct tape (hey! duct tape in
colors! Ain't modern life grand?) to one edge so
that one can see them when they are in place, and
not forget that they are there come fall.

The plastic ones do tend to get gooed up more than
the wooden ones, but they have not been much of
a problem to remove.

[2hives]

I use the all metal ones and they are difficult to remove when burred up, but easier than the plastic ones. One tip...to clean them put them in a solar wax melter for a day (a very warm or hot day) and they will come out clean as a whistle. No scraping.
I just bought a wood-bound one and can see how they would be the best choice, though the most expensive. ($12 vs. $5 for metal, $3 for plastic)

[Hillbillynursery]

I only use excluders as includers and for splitting the brood chamber to help me find the queen. I have a wood bound metal one that was my dads years ago and I got 2 cheap metal ones. I like the metal one better than the bound one for my use. I have never had a problem with them being burred or glued down but I do not leave them on a hive long.

BTW I am needing several more. And will be buying the metal ones. I only have 3 and have caught 6 swarms in the last 2 weeks and lost one because it did not have an includer.