Do queen excluders really reduce the amount of excess honey in the supers. I'm ready to remove my excluders on half of my hives and see if I notice a big difference in production. Did anyone else notice a big difference after removing them?
If you have drawn comb in all your supers the bees will go into the supers through the excluders. I extracted several frames in the last 3 weeks that had brood still in them, yuck, or lots of cocoons in the honey cells. But that is just because I am too lazy to install excluders. With drawn comb and a booming hive and a heavy flow, they will pack it in there with excluders in, IMO.
Quote from: garys520 on July 07, 2011, 07:33:27 PM
Do queen excluders really reduce the amount of excess honey in the supers. I'm ready to remove my excluders on half of my hives and see if I notice a big difference in production. Did anyone else notice a big difference after removing them?
If an excluder is used it is important to have the bees working the super first. Once the bees begin working the super, drawing combs and storing nectar or polllen then the excluder can be installed. Once the bees have an interest in what is above the excluder the worker bees will go through it fairly freely. Placing the excluder on before the bees have begun to work the super is the same as putting the super on above the top, it just as well not be their, the bees will ignore it and settle in to develop what hive existed prior.
It is also important to remove the excluder once the honey harvest has occurred as the bees will fill it full of propolis and block access to any honey stores left on the hive above the excluder.
Another trick, for those who really want to use an excluder, is to place it on sideways instead of long ways as it was designed to be used. This leaves some open area on the ends of the frames for the girls to go up into the box above, but most of the center of the brood frames will have the excluder above them and the queen usually won't venture up.
You can use excluders in a variety of manners. Some are beneficial, and some, especially if you have no forethought, then just a hindrance.
here is some information....
http://www.bjornapiaries.com/equipmentmanagement.html (http://www.bjornapiaries.com/equipmentmanagement.html)
Your flow is probably over. The summer solstice has passed, and they will be very frugal storing in supers unless you have drawn comb already.
I have used queen excluders since my first year amd my neighbor has never used them. We both get about the same amount of honey, although I never have brood in my super (he gets some brood but not much and only in his bottom super.) -Mike
another way to fix the problem of brood in your honey supers is to install a queen excluder and prop your top allowing to brood to hatch before extraction and the drones a way to escape once they hatch. I'm not the biggest fan of excluders my bees don't seem to like them especially on undrawn foundation.