Queen excluders for beehives 

A queen excluder, also called an excluder grid, is a grid the queen cannot pass through. This lets you manage your colony. For example, you can use it to prevent the queen from entering the honey super. That way the queen lays no eggs in the honey super and you can harvest the honey from the colony. But by using a queen excluder, you can also keep the queen confined to a specific part of the hive. If you want to remove the lower brood box, for cleaning or to carry out comb renewal, a queen excluder can be used. This ensures the queen stays in the upper brood box. Usually you can encourage her to move up by puffing smoke with a smoker into the entrance. You can then place the queen excluder on the lower brood box. After that, put the upper brood box back on. This should prevent the queen from entering the lower brood box. After a few days, check whether there are eggs in the lower brood box. If not, the queen is above the excluder, in the upper brood box. Once all brood has emerged in the lower brood box, you can remove it and/or replace the combs.

Showing 1 - 39 of 39 items
Showing 1 - 39 of 39 items

What size queen excluder should I use?

When buying a queen excluder, a few things matter. The most important is the size of the hives you use. If you have a spaarkast, you need a queen excluder that fits the spaarkast. And if you run a Dadant hive, then choose an excluder that fits the Dadant hive. The only difference between these excluders is the size. For example, the excluder for a spaarkast is about 47 by 42 cm, and for a Dadant hive about 50 by 50 cm.

 

Materials queen excluders are made from.

There are more differences between queen excluders, such as the material they are made from. The following materials are common and each has pros and cons. The most widely used is a galvanized steel or stainless steel (RVS) queen excluder. This is a bar-style model that worker bees pass through easily, but the larger queen cannot. A drawback of such an excluder can be that—if a bar gets bent—you often can’t straighten it again and the queen may slip through. Another popular material is plastic. The advantage of a plastic queen excluder is that it’s light and affordable, and often available in various thicknesses. In addition, the bars can’t bend and there is also no heat loss, making it ideal for beginners. Another alternative is an aluminum excluder. This is usually a very thin excluder stamped from an aluminum sheet. That thinness is also the advantage: you barely see it in the hive between the boxes, and there is almost no heat loss because it’s so thin and hardly contacts the outside air. Finally, there’s the wooden queen excluder. This is a handsome excluder that works well and has a low environmental footprint. If it’s no longer needed or eventually worn out, it can go straight onto the compost heap or into the stove. The advantage of metal excluders, aluminum excluders and stainless steel excluders is that they can all be cleaned with a blowtorch. This is quick and easy. Heating the excluder melts the wax and cleans it. The heat also disinfects it. But you can also use a queen excluder scraper, these are available for steel and/or plastic excluders.

 

How do I choose which queen excluder to buy?

First choose the hive size you need the queen excluder for—for example, a spaarkast. Once you’ve made that choice, you know the size you need. From there, check which materials the queen excluder is available in. You can then choose, for example, a stainless steel queen excluder or a plastic queen excluder. When buying, focus primarily on size and your preferred material.

 

When do you place a queen excluder?

A queen excluder is used mainly during the honey harvest. If you have a strong colony with one or two brood boxes (brood chambers) and you want to harvest honey, place the excluder on the brood box (brood chamber), and the honey super on top of the excluder. This keeps the queen out of the honey super and keeps your honey free of eggs and larvae. Because the queen excluder prevents the queen from laying eggs in the honey super. This lets you extract the frames cleanly without contamination.


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