The Role of a Queen Excluder in Beekeeping
Queen Excluders are an important hive component and tool which, which has many benefits and applications in beekeeping hive management.
Introduction to Queen Excluders in Beekeeping
What is a queen excluder in beekeeping
A Queen excluder is a perforated hive component which is used to inhibit the movement of Queen bees. The typical definition of a Queen excluder is a flat mesh
however, additional examples and hive components can have queen excluding capabilities, such as entrance reducers. These devices only allow worker bees to travel through the exclusion barrier. An example of a queen entrance excluder is shown below.
For more information, see my article on when to use Queen entrance excluders. / Applications
What is a queen excluder
What does a queen excluder do
What is the purpose of a queen excluder
H2: How Queen Excluders Work
How does a queen excluder work
Which way up does a queen excluder go
Where does the queen excluder go in a hive
The answer to this question is quite simple, the Queen excluder is going to go wherever you want to place a barrier for a Queen bee (or drones).
Where does queen excluder go
H2: When to Use a Queen Excluder
When to use queen excluder
When to put queen excluder on hive
When to add queen excluder
When do you use a queen excluder
When to remove queen excluder for winter
H2: Queen Excluder Sizing and Setup
Queen excluder size
Should I use a queen excluder
Alternatives to Using a Queen Excluder
An alternative to using a Queen Excluder in regards to honey production is a straight forward process however, it is not 100% effective in keeping the Queen from laying in the honey.
What you do is create a “barrier” of honey. The Queen will tepyically only venture to the edge of the brood nest and not cross a frame gap into a full honey frame. You can establish effective Queen Exclusion by placing a box of filled honey frames between the Queen and the next honey super.
I have found in my use of this technique that is is quite effective in preventing the Queen from layign within the honey area, hoever, it seems that there is a greater likelyhood that pollen resource frames become bult up, as bees inherently surround the brood chamber with a ” ring” of pollen surrounded by honey.
How to harvest honey without a queen excluder
The strategy to harvest honey when a Queen excluder is not in use is quite simple with the right situation. For example, in 2024 I did not use Queen excluders on my colonies. I exmapline further in my article titled:
How to prepare hives for the Florida Spring Flow
Within the article, I explain a method to build a spring colony’s brood population and how to
However, in order to set yourself up for success and to “keep the Queen down” to ensure the Queen does not lay in the honey, a certain set of circumstances must come into play.
The discussion to use excluders or not use excluders is still up for debate, for more details, see my article on “queen excluder or not”
Cleaning and Maintenance of Queen Excluders
Cleaning Queen Excluders can be quite challenging, especially dependent upon the type of material the excluder is made of.