Queen Extruder

[bwallace23350]

What is it exactly and do I really need one?

[flyboy]

A queen excluder is a filter that is large enough to allow a worker bee get through but too small for a queen to go through.

There are a number of reasons to have one such as if you only want workers to take stuff into certain frames and prevent the queen from going there to lay brood.

Others can chime in to any other purposes.

I've heard as many arguments for as against them. It starts a huge discussion at meetings.

[Psparr]

If I had one of those I'd be a millionaire!
All kidding aside, you meant to write excluder. It keeps the queen confined to the brood box. She can't squeeze through the openings, whereas a worker bee can. Allowing the honey supers to be just that. I do not use them, and have no issues with the queen laying in the supers. It also hinders the bees from wanting to use the supers as well.

[GSF]

...Qween Extruder... No Ossifer I hadn't had a tang to dwink

I use to keep them underneath the inner cover to keep from crushing the queen. I have a bunch. The main thing I use them for now is to place "under" a super if I put a swarm in it. Keeps the queen in there. I'll remove it in about 24-36 hours.

[Acebird]

It can be used to isolate a queen when you want to find her in a big hive.  It can be used to partition a hive for raising queen cells, and it is used to keep brood out of honey supers.

[iddee]

Don't forget, guys, it works great under the wheel when you get your truck stuck.

[Acebird]

I don't think my plastic one will work to well for that.  I use 4WD and about 400 pounds of weight in the back.  When I really get it stuck I have to use a chain and the tractors.

[flyboy]

I don't think my plastic one will work to well for that.  I use 4WD and about 400 pounds of weight in the back.  When I really get it stuck I have to use a chain and the tractors.

a 4wd is designed to get you so completely stuck that you need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Huey_family to get U out. LOL

[Acebird]

Yeah, believe me I have been there.

[Barhopper]

If I had one of those I'd be a millionaire!
All kidding aside, you meant to write excluder. It keeps the queen confined to the brood box. She can't squeeze through the openings, whereas a worker bee can. Allowing the honey supers to be just that. I do not use them, and have no issues with the queen laying in the supers. It also hinders the bees from wanting to use the supers as well.

Can you substantiate your last sentence or is that your opinion?

[sc-bee]

If I had one of those I'd be a millionaire!
All kidding aside, you meant to write excluder. It keeps the queen confined to the brood box. She can't squeeze through the openings, whereas a worker bee can. Allowing the honey supers to be just that. I do not use them, and have no issues with the queen laying in the supers. It also hinders the bees from wanting to use the supers as well.

Can you substantiate your last sentence or is that your opinion?

That is the debate....just opinions... sometimes with a new super of foundation it is better to leave it off until the bees start drawing it then put on. So I hear... the ones I have acquired are rotting in a pile..

[mtnb]

You ask if you need one? I bought one last year thinking I'd need one and well, it came with most of the hive kits,so I thought I needed one, so when I pieced things together, I bought one. I haven't used it yet. The bees created a nice honey cap over the brood which she never crossed. But I can see where one could be useful at times. You can have mine. I bought the wrong size anyway. lol Got a 10 when I use all 8s. Lol

[Psparr]

Can you substantiate your last sentence or is that your opinion?


Have heard many people with the same opinion. Also experience. My bees would rather swarm than fill the box above.

[PhilK]

This is always an interesting one! I always hear so many people saying not to use queen excluders, ad that worker bees won't cross them etc.

In my experience with an excluder on I get beautiful supers full of pure honeycomb, with no worries about workers not wanting to go across it. When I didn't use it my queen was up in my super laying and bees were storing pollen in my honey super.

To me it makes a lot more sense to put one on, and then you have no chance of your honey super being contaminated with brood and pollen - open your lid, pull heavy frames of pure honey, and that's that. No picking and choosing which frames to leave or take.

I wish my queens got the memo about not going into the honey super

[Wombat2]

Looking at it both ways - I use an excluder - metal wire ones only as the plastic both deteriorate in about 3 years and the sharp edges damage the bees wings. Using the excluder means all the frames in the honey supers are available for extraction. I run a brood box and two honey supers and rob 9 frames every 2-3 weeks during the flow.(sometimes earlier)

On the flip side I helped a novice get started - she purchased 2 x 3 box hives from an old beek who didn't use an excluder. Both hives were chock a block full with burr comb in the lids. all we could get off was 2 frames from one and 3 from the other - every other frame had brood in them - waste of good honey space.

[sc-bee]

To me it makes a lot more sense to put one on, and then you have no chance of your honey super being contaminated with ------pollen -

Ummmmm I thought that was the desire... honey with pollen

[PhilK]

To me it makes a lot more sense to put one on, and then you have no chance of your honey super being contaminated with ------pollen -

Ummmmm I thought that was the desire... honey with pollen

I meant honey frames contaminated with pollen. Of course there are pollen grains in my honey, and that's great.. but when half of my honey frame is dedicated to storing pollen because of nearby brood, that's wasted honey space to me. Pollen doesn't come out in the extractor so those pollen cells stay put.

Obviously it's a complex debate but excluders work for me so I see no reason for me to get rid of them!

[Oldbeavo]

I agree Phil K, brood box with 2-4 supers that are honey only.
We work on taking supers when full,( rather than taking full frames) by putting a new super under the full one with a bee escape or clearer board between to get all the bees out of the honey super.
With a queen excluder I know where the queen is. the brood box is sometimes almost full of brood at times and it is easy to assess how the queen is laying.
We do get pollen in the supers when there is heaps coming in, often the bees will put a layer of honey over the pollen and cap it.

[Acebird]

I would expect that harvesting in the beginning of the season increases the chance of getting brood in supers.  I have never experienced it because I harvest honey very late in the season.  The queen has shut down or just about and we normally get a good goldenrod flow.  When I first got a hive I used the excluder because it came with the kit and I thought you were suppose to use it.  Up north nucs come late, after the spring flow so there is not that pressure to drive the workforce through the excluder and draw out new foundation.  On a new hive the excluder is a barrier.  That is a fact.  Bees accept drawn used comb readily so it is not such a barrier.

[GSF]

Put it against the inner cover and you can harvest propolis. The plastic ones are better for propolis.