Brown Beek
New Bee
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2017
- Messages
- 32
- Reaction score
- 29
- Hive Type
- National
As an alternative to slotted or wired Queen excluders, I thought I’d trial the use of thick plastic sheeting placed over the brood frames. I note this is a tip Clive de Bruyn picked up from an older Beek in the 1970’s and worked to keep the Queen out of the supers with a heather crop.
The cover goes the internal length of the box, but does not cover the frame lugs so there is plenty of space for the bees to access the upper box. I guess the principle of this approach is that Queen is much less likely to leave the brood nest and go round this barrier unless ‘really’ pressed for laying space (which I should be managing anyway).
The Queen getting into the upper box would not be the a catastrophe, but will prompt a rethink re use of conventional QE measures. I acknowledge it won’t give the same reliability as a QE, but want to see the ‘needs must’ workability of the option. Just thought it was worth a try and if met with abject failure, go to plan B.
Any thoughts or observations on this practice???
The cover goes the internal length of the box, but does not cover the frame lugs so there is plenty of space for the bees to access the upper box. I guess the principle of this approach is that Queen is much less likely to leave the brood nest and go round this barrier unless ‘really’ pressed for laying space (which I should be managing anyway).
The Queen getting into the upper box would not be the a catastrophe, but will prompt a rethink re use of conventional QE measures. I acknowledge it won’t give the same reliability as a QE, but want to see the ‘needs must’ workability of the option. Just thought it was worth a try and if met with abject failure, go to plan B.
Any thoughts or observations on this practice???