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Queen Excluder

4K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Dan Hendricks 
#1 ·
Need advise. I'm very new to the beekeeping community. Nectar flow is very good, and my bees were drawing all the foundations in the hive boby, so I added a queen excluder, and a super. The bees are sealing the openings of the excluder, haven't touched the foundations in the super, and are making honey between the excluder and tops of the frames in the hive body. HELP!
 
#2 ·
Here's my 2 cents worth... First, check to see that 8-9 of the frames in the top hive body have been drawn out by the bees prior to adding the honey super. Next, remove the queen excluder and place the honey super on top of the hive. I've never used a queen excluder, but, last year the queen laid eggs in the bottom 1" of comb in the honey super. I thought that I would have problems, but, when the honey super was full, there were no eggs, larvae, or capped brood in the super at all. It seems to me that your bees aren't taking too kindly to the excluder.

Good Luck.
Paul
 
#3 ·
You didn't specify whether you had one or two hive bodies that the bees are in. If this is a new hive that you started this year, a word of caution before you put a honey super on. You need to first decide what your bees will need to successfully make it through the winter months and into next spring. Most central and northern beekeepers over winter bees in two deep brood chambers. You can winter in one hive body but you need to know your area, bees and weather patterns well as it won't give you a lot of room for error should they become active and there be no nectar for the bees to gather.

If you plan to winter the bees in 2 chambers then you need to be putting the second hive body on with foundation first and only after these are drawn out and occupied with bees should you think about putting honey supers on, all the while feeding them with sugar syrup.

Around here it's fairly unrealistic to expect any honey for the taking the first year from a hive of bees that were started on foundation. Make it your top priority to get the bees well situated for wintering and then see if there is time for some excess honey to be had.

If you have already done this, then all I've said is moot and follow the steps Paul mentions.

Regards,
Barry
 
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