hello everyone,
New Cdn beek here as of last year, spend a couple of years reseaching beekeeping and took the leap last summer. We attempted to use the excluders last summer after the hives had built up hugely, but the bees simply wouldn't go thru them. I've read since that they will not go thru them if the comb is undrawn in the honey supers .. as was the case with ours. This summer, the honey supers are on with no excluders, lots of action in them but the girls have yet to start building comb ... its been alittle over 3wks. We did reverse our brood chambers this spring, we run with 2 deeps, and chances are the queen is down in the bottom at the moment. I'm still not sure if I will eventually use the excluders yet, from what I am reading its really not a huge deal if she does lay in the honey supers. However, we are checking the hives every week right now and keeping an eye on whats going on.