Cleaning metal queen excluders

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks

Just in cleanup mode now after finishing extracting honey from the latest flow. I?ve got a few queen excluders that look a bit like this

[Lesgold]

I?ve tried using scrapers but I end up getting old to quickly doing it that way. I know you can drop them on an open fire briefly but over time that can upset the galvanising. This is how I do it.

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Just cover it in water and let it heat up. A couple of minutes later the water boils, the excluder is hooked out and dropped onto the ground. Any remaining wax is jarred off. A few can be done at the same time and the process can be repeated time and time again. This is the result

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I am sure there are better ways of doing this and I would love to hear about them. Jobs like this are just time consuming tasks that have to be done from time to time.

Cheers

Les

[TheHoneyPump]

We just use a flat wide scraper, both sides.  We do not bother trying to clear the grate.  Especially not with a tool as it only takes a minimal bend to change the spacing and allow problems later.   When they need the space, The bees chew and remove the wax that is left. Figuring, if they can put it there, they can also remove it.
That said, the boiling water bath is the proper way to do it if one wanted an as new excluder.

[beesnweeds]

 A friend of mine puts his excluders in a solar wax melter and they come out clean.  I use a heat gun sometimes.

[Lesgold]

Hi beesnweeds,

I have tried the heat gun before and it does a reasonable job. The solar wax melter would be a good solution as you can walk away and leave it. This would cut the workload down.

[Oldbeavo]

Hi Les
Don't bother with any more than a quick scrape, the bees will open up or add more wax as they wish.
HP is on the money, hot water bath if you want to or have the spare time.

[Brian MCquilkin]

Don't really clean them much at all if I do it is just the flat part on the outside of the edge.  If I find one that is really bad I might run a flat 4" flat scraper down both sides. I never clean in between the wires.

[Lesgold]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Apart from using queen excluders for producing a bit of comb honey, I have never used them in the past. This is the first year where I have placed them on all of my hives.

[KolinFous]

My acquaintance said you don't have to clean it. I certainly didn't expect to hear that answer. But I see that some people also say that you don't have to clean it. But just for its fun, I decided to try to hire the guys from the emop cleaning company. I had a garden to clean, and I asked them to clean the divider. It turned out that they did not do that, but one guy did it himself, and he could clean it for me. xD

[Jim134]

         As many of you know.. About the last 3 or 4 years... That I was in the USA.. I did work on a dairy farm... When I got assigned to washing farm equipment... I also washed bee equipment at the end .. Of washing farm equipment... A Queen  Excluder .like the 0ne that you have in the picture... Would take less than a minute.. To have a clean with a hot water pressure washer.That the farm own..


                            BEE HAPPY  Jim134   

[Acebird]

Pressure washer, wall paper remover, or dress form steamer.

[Bobby Smith]

A friend of mine puts his excluders in a solar wax melter and they come out clean.  I use a heat gun sometimes.

Hi there!
I have been doing the same thing as your friend  for the last maybe 2 years No complaints so far!

[Ben Framed]

Bobby Smith, welcome to Beemaster!!

[Bobby Smith]

Bobby Smith, welcome to Beemaster!!

Thank you! It is a pleasure to be here! 

[BeeMaster2]

Bobby Smith, welcome to Beemaster!!
Jim Altmiller