Hi Charles in Salt Lake City;
My wife and I spent the day working three of our bee yards located on a
loop-run of about fifty miles. After a shower I was checking my e-mail
when I saw your inquire on the Bee-L concerning the use of queen
excluders, but what really caught my attention was the $600 spent on two
unassembled hives. Real estate prices in Salt Lake must be really
extreme if you consider cost per square foot.
Our local association provides a welcome packet to new members which
includes an abbreviated list of suppliers as a starting point. I will
include that list for your reference. All are reliable and usually can
ship materials so we receive orders within three to four days.
A few thoughts on the excluder question:
(1) There are 3 styles of construction -- PLASTIC, too flimsy -- WOODEN
Bound, requires painting and allows space for burr comb -- METAL
Bound, my personal choice
(2) "Honey" or "Bee" excluder reputation -- Maybe? But unless you are
going for a world record production what little loss there is in
honey is MORE than made up for when you don't have to worry about the
Queen being in the super you just carried to the house to
extract or the loss of any brood found in the super. It also makes for
a cleaner appearance when the whole neighborhood is watching and
wanting a piece of comb to chew.
(3) One caution with their use -- If the first super above the excluder
contains ONLY FOUNDATION leave the excluder out for the first
few days to encourage the bee to start drawing out the comb, then you can
slip in the excluder. The trick here is that the queen will
usually not move onto the foundation until the cells are drawn
out enough to lay in.
(4) Excluders are designed with close tolerance measurements between the
wires which restrict the movement of the Queen, but allow the workers to
squeeze through. Be careful with that hive tool. If you bend the
excluder it becomes almost worthless.
Here is the supplier list
A.I. Root Company
P.O. Box 706
Medina, OH 44258
800-289-7668 Ext. 3219
Betterbee Inc.
R.R. #4, Box 4070
Greenwich, NY 12834
800-632-3379
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm
610 Bethany Church Road
Moravian Falls, NC 28654
800-233-7929
Dadant & Sons Inc.
51 South 2nd Street
Hamilton, IL 62341
800-637-7468
Glorybee
P.O. Box 2744
Eugene, OR 97402
800-456-7923
Groeb Farms Inc.
10464 Bryan Highway (P.O. Box 269)
Onsted, MI 49265
517-467-2065
Lapp's Bee Supply Center
500 South Main Street (P.O. Box 460)
Reeseville, WI 53579
800-321-1960
Mann Lake Ltd.
County Road 40 & First Street
Hackensack, MN 56452
800-233-6663
Rossman Apiaries Inc.
P.O. Box 905
Moultrie, GA 31776
800-333-7677
Western Bee Supplies Inc.
P.O. Box 190
Polson, MT 59860
800-548-8440
Walter T. Kelly Co.
3107 Elizabethtown Road
Clarkson, KY 42726-0240
800-233-2899
All but one of these suppliers have 800 numbers and free catalogs. It
will be worth your fifteen-twenty minutes to call and request their
catalog and price lists.
Best of Luck,
Rick Leber, Beekeeping since 1987
Mobile, Alabama
P.S. I tried to send this to [log in to unmask], but mail was returned.
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