Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: Mason on April 28, 2009, 04:05:47 pm
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Brand new here so bare with me. I have been told and read conflicting ideas about putting a queen excluder on the bottom of a new hive to keep the queen from flying away. I was lucky enough to start these both of my hives with one built out frame in each. Initially I put the excluder above the bottom board. Yesterday evening I looked into the bottom of one of my hives by removing some inactive frames to see how the excluder was working. Major log jam of bees. I removed the excluder from one of the hives and left it on the other to compare.
Seems to me that slowing the bees down from coming and going would delay growth in wax production. Not to mention I feel a little bad watching the bees come home from work and have to crawl all around that thing just to get home. I'm also wondering how much pollen and whatever they drop trying to get through the excluder. I don't want my queen to fly away but weighing that against building the hive.
Any thoughts or experience on this? Should I remove them both?
I have not smoked the hive and inspected to see if the queen is released and laying. It's only been 3 days since the install.
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If the queen is laying, remove the excluders.
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you'll get clogged up with drones, and you want them to be able to get out. excludes are useful for a few days after hiving a swarm. maybe after installing a package, although i have never done that.
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Never have and never will use an ex cluder in that manner.If they don't want to stay in what I give them then I'll have to check and see what I did wrong.
Lost one swarm like that once, only they had not taken the boxes all the way.
It appeared they got about half in and discovered,(at about the same time I did) the the hive wasn't big enough. 2 deeps was about half enough. Big swarm.doak
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Once you have open brood, I'd remove it.
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I went out to the yard yesterday and noticed a significant amount more food consumption from the hive that I had removed the excluder from. I will be removing the other one today.
I know I need to check and see if the queen is laying but don't want to smoke such a new hive. Their pretty docile. Do you think I can just take a look without the smoke or just wait the full week?
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I know I need to check and see if the queen is laying but don't want to smoke such a new hive. Their pretty docile. Do you think I can just take a look without the smoke or just wait the full week?
Most likely yes, especially if you go easy and don't bang and drop things around. At this point they are busy trying to rebuild and really don't care about you.
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All is well,
the queens are free and laying and the frames are building up.
wooo hooo!
No smoke, vail or gloves....no stings.
I did not realize the "pet value" of bees. I love them already.
Thanks for the help
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All is well,
the queens are free and laying and the frames are building up.
wooo hooo!
No smoke, vail or gloves....no stings.
I did not realize the "pet value" of bees. I love them already.
Thanks for the help
Good news. I would not assume that you can go without any protection at all, all of the time. They just might teach you a lesson. :)
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No smoke, vail or gloves....no stings.
I did not realize the "pet value" of bees. I love them already.
one day they will show you a nice time, they are all girls and can be moody :shock: , you will see once they build up :evil: