Q/e-less

[Tim.S]

Just an observation really. This is the first year that I have gone excluder-less in a couple of hives and judging by the way they are performing they will all be without the q/e next year. In the supers I use one frame drawn, one frame foundation as per usual practice but I have noticed today that the bees have put stores in the drawn frames and brood in the foundation. Not a problem but I am curious as to why they would do this. They are not short on space further down the boxes but obviously seem to prefer fresh drawn comb for laying eggs in. Has anyone else observed this as this non q/e stuff is new to me!
By the way the q/e hives are on 3 boxes and the non q/e are on 5 and going great guns!

 

[REDWOOD]

Probably, by the sound of things they needed the drawn comb immediately for storing honey and brood rearing was the second thing on their minds

 

[richardbees]

By the way the q/e hives are on 3 boxes and the non q/e are on 5 and going great guns!

I'm a bit confused, how many frames total do you have in each super? My National hives are still mainly on 1 super of 10 frames

 

[jd101k2000]

I am a beginner... so I may be making an ass of myself... but I found that my bees seem to detest queen excluders. I bought them the best wired excluders this year and they grudgingly put some nectar up into the super... but put far more in the brood box. Last year I did not use Q/E s and did not have this problem. (Well, I used plastic ones for a short time last year, but they refused to go through them.) Also, this year, they also filled up the Q/E with significant amounts of wax on all three times that I have inspected the hive since I put the Q/E in.

Before you mention it, I had put drawn comb in the super, above the Q/E. A few bees came through with nectar... but far more dumped it in the brood box. I was concerned that they would feel cramped with the ever-decreasing brood space and swarm.

So today the Q/Es came out of both hives. There are good 'honey arches', so I am not expecting much brood in the supers. I shall see!

 

[Tim.S]

Hi Richard. The supers all have 11 Hoffman SN4's in them. I am in the process of changing these hives over to all national deeps but due to a shortage of kit this year (as the bees have gone nuts) they are on a mixture of boxes. A bit inconvenient but only temporary.
I believe a certain Finnish gentleman likes to call Queen excluders 'honey excluders' and from my experience he certainly has a point.

 

[scuttlefish]

I use QXs on all six of my hives & have never seen a problem with them, either metal or plastic.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

QE- certainly feels like the way forward for me. I'm growing my colony downwards for now with some success; I have realised a great trick to get them interested in a new "basement" is DRONE foundation (one frame, natch), given they are usually a bit short of drone comb.

 

[richardbees]

Hi Tim
thanks for reply - but in which case how can you have 5 supers on?

As it's your first year I strongly suggest you just go along with 'traditional' procedure: a brood box, QE then honey supers on top......

....the bees will go up through the QE as soon as they've run out of space.

rich