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Re: Bee hive question again
[Re: SDB]
#6299550
08/11/18 10:09 PM
08/11/18 10:09 PM
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 398 Bloomer, WI
Adam Potaczek
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 398
Bloomer, WI
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I am not a big believer in queen excluders. I learned a long time ago and has been my experience that a queen will only lay so high. I have no trouble with queens laying in my supers and I run no excluders. I believe it will slow them down and wear them out running excluders. There are some variables here however. Do you have drawn comb or just foundation? If they have to draw comb it can take time and there has to be a good honey flow. Make sure to inspect other frames in the deeps and make sure they have honey. I have seen years where you think there should be honey but there is not. Weather and lots of variables here. I would also like to hear what others say about queen excludes but I would get them off if they look plugged. Good luck. Adam
Last edited by Adam Potaczek; 08/11/18 10:12 PM.
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Re: Bee hive question again
[Re: SDB]
#6299565
08/11/18 10:27 PM
08/11/18 10:27 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,178 Piney va. soon be 19
cotton
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,178
Piney va. soon be 19
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count me as one who calls em honey excluders. dang few times i use the ONE i have here
John 3/16
ifin your gonna be dumb ya gotta be tough VTA life member
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Re: Bee hive question again
[Re: SDB]
#6299599
08/11/18 11:17 PM
08/11/18 11:17 PM
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Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 3,178 Pa.
Bigbrownie
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 3,178
Pa.
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Well, it looks like I'm going to take the contrary opinion here. I use excluders, particularly in the early part of the season. I detest brood in my supers. Brood stains the wax, makes the cells smaller, and most importantly, supers that contained brood are far more attractive to wax moths than supers without any sign of brood. This time of year it's less likely for a queen to go high in a hive laying eggs. So many times when supering up for the fall flow I'll omit them. You sometimes can contain a queen to the hive bodies below by the presence of a full super above the brood below. I say sometimes, because if the bees feel the need to expand the brood chamber, they'll simply move the honey out of the super and store elsewhere.
A couple of things about using excluders...I always use drawn comb in any supers above excluders. Bees will hesitate to draw out foundation above an excluder. I always check their progress ( or lack of) in working supers above excluders. If they seem hesitant, I'll put a bucket feeder with 2:1 syrup over the inner cover ( with an empty hive body and outer cover to shelter the bucket) . This is only to prime the pump....get it off after they begin to utilize the feeder for a day or two. Otherwise they're going to fill the super with syrup based honey as opposed to nectar sourced honey. Sometimes I'll put in a shim with an entrance above the excluder to make it easier for foragers to enter the super. Many times they'll still enter through the bottom board entrance. If all else fails,the excluder comes out.
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Re: Bee hive question again
[Re: SDB]
#6299640
08/12/18 01:19 AM
08/12/18 01:19 AM
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 72 West Virginia
WVCritter
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 72
West Virginia
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I only had bees for a few years and lost them to tracheal mites but a friend of mine, who just happened to have years of experience at bee keeping, taught me how to care for and manage my bees. He told me to never use a queen excluder but instead to use 7 11 foundation in my supers. It has an odd size and the queen won't lay eggs in it. I followed his instructions and it worked for me. https://www.kelleybees.com/foundation-for-medium-frames-d-mnw.html
I married a moonshiner's daughter and I love her still!
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