Queen excluders

[beezwacks]

looking at buying queen excluders for next year, which will be my first.
so the question is pros and cons of :-

Plastic, other than being the cheapest do they have any downfalls?

slotted steel, pressed steel and mid-range price, again any downfalls?

wired frame, most expensive, but being wire presumably has smooth transition for the bees between bb and supers?

any help and info would be great.

want to buy once so getting it right first time counts.

TIA

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

I use the wood framed wire ones, they give a bee space with the frame...

 

[oliver90owner]

I use (mostly framed) wire excluders. Not used all season. But my hives are all top bee space - makes a difference.

RAB

 

[Pete D]

Hi,
being a new comer this year I started with a plastic one which came with my first hive (new) and a steel one on my 2nd hive (second hand). Once I added a super to both hives it soon became apparent that there was not much happening in the plastic hive one and there was a lot of talk about dodgy ones from Th**nes so I replaced it with a metal one.
Things were much better then but after several inspections I noticed the bees get a bit upset about being pinged up whilst freeing the metal excluder.
I have now changed to wire frame ones and all much happier, me and the bees. (oh but not with spending out 3 times !)
If I did it again it would be wire framed all the way.
Few quid more but worth it in my opinion, but I am relatively new here
Oh bottom bee space by the way.
Cheers
Pete D

 

[Poly Hive]

I use plastic on the poly units and just lay them on the top bars and there is not an issue.

Taking them off requires a bit of care, but what's new there in taking off an excluder?

I had in the past the very expensive Waldron ones but the bee space on them was neither one nor the other and they created quite a lot of brace comb.

I frankly don't miss them at all.

PH

 

[beezwacks]

thanks guys,
so far the consensus is wired framed excluders as being the most popular (3 out of 4 votes) and overall same better VFM.
sounds like the plastic ones could break, and the pressed steel is prone to spring back.
I will let this run as long as it does , but w/f excluders look like to obvious choice if a little more expense.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

If you can afford it, the framed wire ones are probably best. If you can't its not the end of the world and plastic or metal will do a perfectly good job (assuming spacing correct!).

 

[TOBY-3652]

I tried some plastic early in season but now use framed wire ones

 

[Snail368]

Plastic ones work OK for my bees.

 

[Swarm]

Bee space becomes an issue with slotted plastic and steel but probably more so with plastic because they both lay on top of the frames. There is the inevitable build up of brace and propolis which can never be cleaned sufficiently to recreate the bee space, which leads to more brace ... and so on.
Framed wire excluders seem to be a better choice, however that's not to say they are fail safe. I've had to work the hive tool carefully around every edge to prevent snapping on more than one occasion, a lot will depend on your bees. No doubt you will still get some brace comb as well, some bees just love trying to join the super and brood frames regardless of bee space.

 

[Headnavigator]

Framed wire every time, I'm another who has bought through an ascending scale of excluders until I reached this. Cheaper to be sensible and ask as you have done, and get it right first time.

 

[tonybloke]

I use framed wire excluders, but then, my hives are all top bee space.

 

[drex]

Plastic . Cheap and they work. No problems with durability. For a few bob I stick a wooden frame round the edge on one side, and across middle, no sagging and it gives me bee space on top of my frames ( Bottom space nationals).

 

[Nic Rhodes]

I now use plastic in preference to metal sheet however prefer the wired ones in frames HOWEVER I would ask the question do you really need them? I know it drummed into new beekeepers it is an essential item in spring to autumn but all too often they are left on all the year around when in reality with sufficient space they might not be needed in any season. Perhaps they might just be needed to keep queens out of supers going for extraction three to four weeks before supers are removed.

 

[Haughton Honey]

All of mine are now framed wire ones having binned all of my poly hives in favour of cedar Commercial (controversial eh!).

You can use them to support your fondant on them quite nicely too.

 

[Chrisfnvs]

we use plastic QE on all the hives, and have done for a while with no problems until this year that is, when we found the bees did not want to go up passed the QE into the supers, so we had to take them out altogether and the bees went up straight away, only laying a small Ark of brood in the middle of the first super above the brood box, and then filled the supers above that in no time at all, we will see how it goes but may leave them out again next season Chris

 

[AndyJThompson]

I have 3 national hives bottom bee space and this season have had all 3 types plastic, slotted steel and wired. Plastic the bees wouldn't pass through, slotted steel pain to remove and pinging bees. wired ones sturdy great to remove. Of my 3 hives the wired excluder worked the best.

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