A Queen Excluder is used to keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers. The excluder works due to the queen being larger than a normal worker bee and cannot pass through the slots in the wire.
It is normally only used during the honey season (spring/summer) and should be removed during the autumn and winter months so the bees are able to group together to keep warm.
What is a queen excluder and when should I use one?
A queen excluder is a grid, which can be metal, plastic, or even bamboo. It has bars or holes in it which allows the worker bees to move through it but does not allow the queen to pass through due to her larger body size. Thus, the queen is unable to get onto the honey frames and lay her eggs there, which means you can safely extract honey from those frames, without being concerned that there could be a brood on them.
The queen excluder should be placed between the brood box and the honey super.
In Autumn some beekeepers remove the queen excluder to enable the bees to form a clump, unhindered during winter so that the bees can move to the warmest part of the hive.
The queen excluder can then be replaced on the hive during a fine day in spring, making sure that the queen and any brood are below the queen excluder. This could mean reversing the hive boxes because the queen and workers have migrated to the top box which is warmer. An inspection will quickly show where the queen is.
If you do happen to trap the queen above the excluder this is not a problem because when you do your next inspection you will find the queen and brood on one or two of the frames, the queen and these frames can then be moved below the excluder.
We have a range of excluders in stock, which are either metal or plastic.
Plastic excluders are cheaper but more difficult to clean, some beekeepers claim that this damage the bees’ wings.
Metal excluders are either galvanized steel or stainless steel, these are more hardwearing and easier to clean. Stainless Queen excludes being more expensive but more cost-effective in the long run
Metalic 510 mm x 370mm 8/16 Frames
Metalic 510mm x 410mm 10/20 Frames
Bulk Buy
Qty 5 = $ 69.95
Qty 10 = $ 134.95
Qty 20 = $ 259.95
