Today I found the only beekeeper in my area. He is a very knowledgeable and wise old man. He had been in successful bee/honey business for 56 years. He is mentoring me and selling me a couple of his established hives. My only question is he told me that in his 56 years of beekeeping he has never been able to get bees to go through a queen excluder to make honey. He said that they just will not go through it. He explained how is waits for any brood to hatch in the supers before getting the honey. Has anyone heard of queen excluders not working?
queen excluder doesn't work here?
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Sometime they are a blessing and sometimes they make you feel cursed. They are great for having broodless honeysupers if you do a few honey removals each season. If you put them above a double deep(or worse triple deeps) and place empty dry supers above the excluder they can be reluctant to go through. If you have the bees storing nectar(and sometimes brood) in the honey super, drive them down with bee-go then place the excluder underneath the super and they should continue to go through the excluder with little trouble. You need to force(coax) them through it.
Or you can configure them like I do --> Configuration for honey production with queen excluder.
In my configuration the bees have to go through the queen excluder to access the brood nest, they don't have to go through the queen excluder to access the honey supers.
In my configuration the bees have to go through the queen excluder to access the brood nest, they don't have to go through the queen excluder to access the honey supers.
There is somewhat of a trick or an art to using an excluder.
Bees don't like honey in the broodnest.
Bees like honey above the brood.
The time for an excluder is just as a nectar flow starts.
Two boxes crowded with bees, as a nectar flow is coming.
Make bottom box be the honey frames, filling in with sealed brood.
Make the next box up be the frames of eggs and larva, filling in with what's left.
In that top box, now remove 2 frames that are mostly empty or of older brood. Put in 2 frames foundation or comb to the two outside positions.
Now put on the excluder, adding a box of foundation on top, with those two drawn frames in the middle of it. These are the 'bait frames'.
Add another super on top, with the top covers.
There is now honey under the brood, in the broodnest. There is space above the brood to store honey, over excluder. The bees will start moving that honey from under the brood up above the brood, above the excluder to store above the brood. They are encouraged to do so also because there is two bait frames of open brood up there that they need to take care of. They will need to start drawing frames next to it for storing nectar to feed the brood. As those two frames emerge, they'll be filled with honey, and drawing of comb honey will continue above the excluder until the nectar flow slows or stops.
Bees don't like honey in the broodnest.
Bees like honey above the brood.
The time for an excluder is just as a nectar flow starts.
Two boxes crowded with bees, as a nectar flow is coming.
Make bottom box be the honey frames, filling in with sealed brood.
Make the next box up be the frames of eggs and larva, filling in with what's left.
In that top box, now remove 2 frames that are mostly empty or of older brood. Put in 2 frames foundation or comb to the two outside positions.
Now put on the excluder, adding a box of foundation on top, with those two drawn frames in the middle of it. These are the 'bait frames'.
Add another super on top, with the top covers.
There is now honey under the brood, in the broodnest. There is space above the brood to store honey, over excluder. The bees will start moving that honey from under the brood up above the brood, above the excluder to store above the brood. They are encouraged to do so also because there is two bait frames of open brood up there that they need to take care of. They will need to start drawing frames next to it for storing nectar to feed the brood. As those two frames emerge, they'll be filled with honey, and drawing of comb honey will continue above the excluder until the nectar flow slows or stops.
I have never had wonderful luck with excluders. I usually don't use them. But you can manipulate the bees into going through them. The question is, if it's worth the trouble and what you accomplish.
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I have also heard of folks putting them on sideways the thought is since the queen usually sticks to the center most frames she won't go around it but the bees will. I have not done this...just throwing it out there. I have found the queen on the outer most frame more than once.
It may take some time to understand how to keep bees with excluders.
But they work & they help us beeks that over winter bees here in the midwest.
I also like the fact that they can be used as a tool to keep varroa counts down.
When the brood nests are checked in the spring almost all drone combs are culled out at this time.
The excluder limits the queen to the brood nests & does not allow her to roam the entire stack of supers during the honey flow. We do have some white extracting comb with drone comb in it.To nice of comb to discard as if it were found in the brood nest.
Lots of little red bugs are always found on the drip boards in the honey house from yards that had no excluders on them.
In back checking those yards in the fall the mite counts are always higher in the yards that had no excluders on them compaired to the yards that used excluders!
This all may sound very strange but we have the proof & if an excluder did not work we would not use them.
But they work & they help us beeks that over winter bees here in the midwest.
I also like the fact that they can be used as a tool to keep varroa counts down.
When the brood nests are checked in the spring almost all drone combs are culled out at this time.
The excluder limits the queen to the brood nests & does not allow her to roam the entire stack of supers during the honey flow. We do have some white extracting comb with drone comb in it.To nice of comb to discard as if it were found in the brood nest.
Lots of little red bugs are always found on the drip boards in the honey house from yards that had no excluders on them.
In back checking those yards in the fall the mite counts are always higher in the yards that had no excluders on them compaired to the yards that used excluders!
This all may sound very strange but we have the proof & if an excluder did not work we would not use them.
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