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Exclude or not to Exclude w/ undrawn Foundation

3K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Juandefuca 
#1 ·
First year at beekeeping and started out with 2 ea 4 frame nucs of Caucasions. They have drawn most of the 2 deeps in which they were placed and filled them with honey, pollen and brood. So far so good!
Hive #2 was considerably stronger to start and was ready to super 3 weeks ago. I placed a wood-bound metal queen excluder over the brood chamber and 1 super of undrawn foundation. They have done nothing in the last 3 weeks in the super, and only a few dozen bees have ventured thru the excluder.
As a side note, I had previously been top feeding to aid in drawing the foundation in the brood chamber, but took it off when I supered as I wanted the honey here to be from their forays.
Hive #1, I left the top feeder on and they have completely emptied it but as I only purchased one queen excluder, I haven't supered. It has to be nearing the time for supering, but I don't know whether to buy an excluder or not.
Our weather has been moderately good and they have been out in force for quite some time.
Any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

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Mike
 
#2 ·
Ocassionally bees are very slow to creep through the excluder. Some beekeepers just leave the excluder out altogether. They experience some brood in the super but when the brood hatches they store nectar/ honey instead.Neither is it always the case that the queen uses the super as a brood nest. Just make sure that there is plenty empty comb below to prevent crowding .
Happy beeing
catfish
 
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