Hardware cloth for Queen Excluder

[alfred]

I was going to get some Queen excluders so that I could isolate the queens.
I was wondering, couldn't I use hardware cloth?
The question would be what size? I'm guessing #5 or #6?
Any thoughts sugestions or experience?

[Hethen57]

I recently purchased 1/4 inch hardware cloth and the wires are the same distance apart as my queen excluder.  I was going to use it for SBB's, but the bees just clustered right through it, so I took it off and doubled it up at an offset, to get 1/8" squares...which matched the mite screen I had purchased from Dadant.  I'm not sure how those sizes translate to numbers?  It may be squares per inch or something.
-Mike

[Robo]

Personally, I think there is too much variation in the hardware cloth to be effective in letting the works pass somewhat easily and totally prevent the queen.   

[Michael Bush]

#5 is often used in Africa for a queen excluder. The problem is it will dislodge pollen, so make sure it's not between the entrance and the brood nest.  A queen excluder is far superior.

[B. Haning]

Five mesh hardware cloth works fine.  I don't use queen excluders often, but the ones I have are made of 5 mesh hardware cloth.  I have a relative that used to run several hundred 2 queen colonies with 5 mesh hardware cloth screens to separate the 2 queens brood nests.  If you are concerned about loss of pollen as the bees pass through the hardware cloth just give the bees an entrance above and below the excluder.  The bees will by pass the excluder when they are bringing pollen.