Excluder?

[Michael C]

 Hello, I have 1 hive that is 5 months old. Last month we extracted 2 gallons of honey from the top super 8-). Checked on it today to find that the top super is half full of capped honey and brood. I am thinking about putting and excluder on before adding a 4th super. We live in Central Florida. Is that a good idea?

[mikecva]

Excluders are primarily used to keep the queen down in the brood area and thus stopping her from laying eggs in the honey supers. Excluders are loved by some and cursed by others. If your workers are larger then the slots in the excluders, you will also be stopping all work above the excluder by your house bees.  -Mike

[AllenF]

Bees store honey over brood.  Check to make sure the other boxes are not honey bound.  (all honey, no room for brood)  You can move boxes and frames around to get the brood back on bottom. 

[jayj200]

yes what about the two deeps.

just had my big hive swarm due to it being honey bound.

[GSF]

My primary use of excluders is to keep the queen from being squashed by the inner cover and top. If my bees ever crank out any amount of honey that may change. If so I'll put a top entrance piece around the honey frames.