Queen excluder

[randydrivesabus]

I don't own one of these but since I have trouble finding the queen I think I could use one to seperate her from the workers if I'm doing a split. I've never seen what one looks like(the excluder not the queen)but I imagine that its like an inner cover with hardware cloth inside the frame instead of plywood. What size hardware cloth will workers fit through but not the queen? #6? or should I just buy one? I like building my own stuff. Are plastic ones better than wooden ones?

[PerryBee]

Up here in the great white north the metal ones are $12 the plastic ones around $5.They sort of look like the old refridgerator racks but much tighter grill.

[PerryBee]

By the way, are you a transit driver? just wondering cause I was for 11 years.

[randydrivesabus]

school bus.

[Cindi]

Randy, that is a good question.  I googled queen excluders (I looked through Michael's site, but nothing jumped out at me) and found this site that offers lots of information on the Q.E.  Good luck, have a fantastic day.  Cindi

http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/excludertypes.html

[asprince]

Hey Randy, I also drive a school bus.

Steve

[PerryBee]

School bus driver,hmmm, summers off,........good fit!

[Michael Bush]

Usually you buy an excluder.  It needs great precision to work at it's best.  If you are too poor or too cheap to buy one, #5 hardware cloth will work, but is harder on the bees than a real excluder.

If you only need a temporary one, the plastic ones are cheap.  If you want a permanant one, I like the wood bound ones the best.

[SteveSC]

Micheal...  You don't normally use excluders do you..? 

[Michael Bush]

>You don't normally use excluders do you..?

Not on a normal production hive.  During queen rearing I always have a couple of hives with them.  The breeder hive has one so I can easily find and confine the queen to the Jenter box.  The finisher hives often have one so I can have a queenright finisher.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#excluders