[beesohappy]

Here's my $0.02.

I have the metal ones and the wood with metal ones. I gave the wood and metal ones away. They're both heavy if you get more than 30 of them that your packing around. The grey plastic ones that Mann Lakes sells are nice. I've seen white plastic ones and the edges are to sharp. I've heard they tear up the wings because of the sharp edges.

On the other hand the wood ones look really nice and finished on the hive.

 

[AstroBee]

Plain metal for me. Don't bother with the wood bound.

 

[wildflowerlanehoney]

T

I have a couple of all that you listed and really have not seen and difference in anyone particular other than cost. All seem to work about the same from my perspective.

A

 

[David LaFerney]

I run all 8 frame equipment, but came into a good deal on a bunch of 10 frame wooden bound excluders. I cut a few down, made shims for some, then deployed some as is - with one side hanging out. Turns out that makes a good entrance/drone escape. The metal ones are fine for me - I don't really see any advantage in wooden bound excluders.

 

[Mbeck]

I had metal excluder taste on a plastic excluder pocket book!
Now that I have both I often wonder if I'll be able to tell if a metal one gets bent just enough to fail to do its job. It's seems the plastic will just break?

 

[jjohnsind]

As per the class I took. They all work, the bees seem to go through the metal ones easier. The plastics ones are easier to clean (for some reason, the instructor said that the metal ones had to be scrubbed when that time came).

 

[My-smokepole]

You will replace the plastic ones a lot faster than the metal ones.

 

[Mr.Beeman]

Metal all the way IF you use them much. If the wax starts to build up on the metal ones, you can easily hit them with a heat gun and melt it off with no issues.

 

[Michael Bush]

Plastic doesn't age well in the sun. Plastic is hard to clean up. Metal bound gets propolized down a lot. Wood bound gets some burr comb but not so much propolis. Wood bound is easy to see where you have an excluder on (especially if you paint the wood binding a different or bright color). I like wood bound but it's been hard to find in eight frame so most of mine are currently metal bound. I haven't seen one lately but there used to be plastic ones that were punched. They were hard on bees with sharp edges... there also used to be punched zinc ones. They had the same faults. But the punched ones were easy to cut up and use for restricting a queen in a brood nest for a donor hive...

 

[snl]

Use the all metal ones. When I get them, I stack them and paint the edges all a bright yellow.....easy to see on the hives.........

 

[camero7]

I use the plastic ones for splitting hives and for making nucs. They are cheap, light and hold up pretty well for that use. They don't get propolized because they're not on the hive long [a day or so]. I don't use excluders on my honey hives.

 

[KQ6AR]

Plain metal, the plastic ones can easily be damaged & the queen will go through. The wood bound takes up to much storage space.

 

[Roland]

We run wood bound metal, and replace the wood rims as needed, which is not often. Watch your bee space with anything else.

Crazy Roland