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Queen excluder and how bees work...

3K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
I need some help. I understand how to use the QE and when to put it on. What I don't understand is how you keep brood out of the honey supers if you wish not to use it.

This will be my first year, so the bees will put pollen, brood AND honey in my first deep right? After that is drawn out 8-9/10 frames, I will put on my medium super. Now, what happens at this point? Do they put brood, pollen and honey into that as well? I, just confused at the process. When do they STOP putting brood in and start storing ONLY honey?
 
#5 ·
I don't run excluders and I have seen queens lay up into the fifth deep on the stack. Usually they move down and refill those cells used to raise brood if you leave them alone. The problem with excluders are usually the experience level of the beekeeper. It is more difficult for my money to manage bees with them than without them. Since I am not too smart and also lazy, I usually opt to run without them. It is also why it is easiest to run one size of boxes for liquid honey. As someone already explained, sorting frames for me is easier than putting on excluders at just the right time.

The bees tend to store pollen down low in the hive but some colonies will store it thruout the hive. Some fill most of the frames in the bottom box with pollen. Colonies are as individual as people and do things their own way. They will tend to use all the pollen they can gather while building up and store very little. Then in late summer, mine tend to store huge amounts down low. The honey mostly gets stored in the outside of the box and above the cluster. When temperature drops, most colonies want the honey above them to move up into.

Bd you are right to be excited. THis beekeeping thing is lots of fun. Be sure to let yourself have some. Since you are starting out probably with foundation and new bees, the most important advice I can give you is close up the colony to a restricted 1 inch opening to start with. Only gradually expand that opening as major traffic jams start occuring. Lots of bees can go in a one inch hole! The bees need to be able to control the temperature in that hive and need it in the upper ninties in there to most efficiently make new comb and the easier they can keep it warm, the more brood they will be able to cover and keep warm. After your hive is booming and covering most of the frames in the hive body is it time to give them a wide open entrance and indulge in such things as screened bottom boards.
 
#6 ·
I think bees HATE QEs. A friend of mind go a hold of a hive that had been unmanaged for 4 years. This hive was a double deep with a QE and then a medium above that with foundation. The bees had not even touched the foundation in 4+ years. You can't tell me they didn't run out of room and were at least tempted to go thru the the QE in 4 YEARS. Granted in a perfect world the QE would not have been put on until the bees had started working in the medium, but FOUR YEARS. GEEZ
 
#7 ·
> What I don't understand is how you keep brood out of the honey supers if you wish not to use it.

First, bees are not going to scatter brood here and there all over the hive. They are going to have a contiguous brood nest.

Second, I run all the same size boxes, so perhaps that taints my view, but if the queen lays eggs in that box, it's not a super... it's a brood box. If I didn't let her they would have crowded her down and she might have swarmed. Giving her a place to lay is one of the best ways to keep her from swarming.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesulbn.htm
 
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