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Author Topic: excluder update  (Read 1363 times)

Offline 10framer

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excluder update
« on: July 06, 2014, 01:30:43 pm »
i picked 4 hives for production this year and ran excluders on two and none on the other two.  the hives with excluders were more productive.  the interesting part is that i only ran a single deep for a brood chamber on one of them and the other actually suffered about a 2 or 3 pound bee loss to what looked like pesticides just before the flow.
this was nothing scientific by any means and i don't think that the excluders made them more productive.  i just don't think they make bees less productive.  the best hive also went through the excluder and drew out foundation before it filled it.  just a little food for thought on the great excluder debate.

Offline Nyleve

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Re: excluder update
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2014, 02:17:31 pm »
So I've just been thinking about posting about this. Have had a honey super on for 3 or 4'weeks, with a plastic excluder between the super and two brood boxes. Well, when I checked them today I discovered that the bees have been basically doing nothing in the honey super. Maybe cleaning out the old comb, but otherwise, nothing new built and definitely nothing filled. I was thinking that maybe the plastic excluder was too tight for the bees to get through, so I swapped it out for an older wire one and am hoping for improvement. Funny thing is that I bought the plastic excluder a couple of years ago because the queen was getting up into the honey super through the wire excluder and laying eggs there! So I had to get a tighter one. What is going on here?

Offline sc-bee

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Re: excluder update
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2014, 02:25:24 pm »
So did you have to enter the brood area more often with excluders to relieve congestion vs free roaming queen? Therefore making the excluder more labor intensive. Never tried to run excluders, based on my work schedule I don't think I could stay ahead of them?
John 3:16

Offline 10framer

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Re: excluder update
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2014, 04:11:10 pm »
i went through some of the brood chambers last week.  that's probably the first time since maybe april unless it was checking walk away splits or swarms for queens.  i pulled nucs from the hives that started looking swarmy before the flow and replaced the frames with foundation.  once the flow is on i don't spend much time in the brood chambers if i can help it.  now i'm in the dearth and will pull honey and make more splits then super again for the late summer/fall flows.  i can assess queens and see who lives to see another season and who doesn't now, too.

Offline AliciaH

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Re: excluder update
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2014, 12:44:01 pm »
Not an expert by any means, but I have found that in general, an excluder is problematic if there is nothing above it to attract the girls to go through.  New foundation above an excluder is the worst! 

I don't use excluders, but recommend to folks that do to leave them off until the bees start working the frames and drawing the wax.  OR, if you have drawn comb, uncapped honey, or are brave enough to put a bit of uncapped brood above an excluder, that helps the process along very nicely.

Offline 10framer

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Re: excluder update
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2014, 01:24:19 pm »
alicia, i've never had the problems that everyone talks about.  that's kind of why i did this this year.  i really didn't see a difference in the rate that the foundation was drawn out.  part of it could be the bees, though.  my bees are mutts and there are all different sizes and colors in my hives so i think passing through is easy for a lot of the workers and once they start the rest follow.  honestly, i'll probably only run them on hives where i know the queens will cross capped honey to lay, though.  in the hives with double deep brood chambers and no excluder the queens didn't get into the supers much if any during the early flow.