What should you do with the queen excluder that came with your beginner hive kit? It’s a good question, and a number of new beekeepers have written this week asking how exactly they should use a queen excluder. For example: In order to answer these questions, you need to think about what a queen excluder […] Read more
Last time I promised a list of ways to encourage your bees to travel through an excluder even though I don’t think it’s a great idea. Anyway, your choice. The first point was mentioned several times by readers, and I will repeat it here. Wire excluders seem to work better than plastic ones, probably because […] Read more
Why do experienced and commercial beekeepers use queen excluders without hesitation, while newbees insist their bees won’t go through an excluder under any circumstances? Certainly the bees aren’t considering the beekeeper’s experience level, they’re just doing what they need to do on their own schedule. Beekeeper impatience The answer, I think, has more to do […] Read more
For years I’ve followed the exploits of Detective Anthony Planakis, aka Tony Bees, as he rescued swarms of honey bees from the streets of New York City. Now retired, Tony Bees tends his own hives, sells honey, teaches beginners, and tries to keep me in line. Turns out, though, whenever Tony Bees talks, I listen. […] Read more
Why? Because conditions are not right. Pure and simple. This time of year, new beekeepers are asking why their bees will not fill the honey supers or even visit the supers. Some report their bees walking around inside only to leave again, uninterested. Some blame queen excluders. Others believe they are doing something wrong. But […] Read more
Beekeepers are frequently advised to put a queen excluder under the brood box to keep a new package from absconding. Since the queen can’t leave, the colony won’t leave either. This is good advice that works well as long as you remove the excluder once the bees have settled in. Since drones cannot leave through […] Read more
I want to share an interesting conversation I’ve been having with Oregon beekeeper Morris Ostrofsky. After I posted about how to use swarm guards, he challenged the idea that virgin queens can sometimes get through them. He wrote: I had a conversation with Dan Purvis some years ago regarding virgin queens and queen excluders. Dan […] Read more