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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:32:56 GMT
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>>The subject of queen excluders came up and I expressed the opinion that 
"one half of the room uses them and the other half doesn't, and they'll never agree 
on it".

The following experience is not scientific but convinced me.  This year I put my excluders 
aside and gave each colony a 3 deep nest with 4-5 medium supers.  The result was an 
average yield of 225 lbs of honey per hive.  I had never had this with excluders and 2 
deep nests.  Not even close - I'd be lucky to get over a 100 lb of honey.

Did the queens lay in the supers above the 3 deep nests?  Only some drones in the few 
cells between the supers.  The bees would clean these cells of honey after my inspections 
and the queen would then have access to lay in them.  The supers filled up so quickly with 
honey that the queens had not choice but to lay in the deeps where they had plenty of 
space.  The drone cells bet. the supers was evidence that the queens take walks up into 
the supers.

>>I like the idea of a one story brood nest enforced by a queen excluder. It makes a 
very efficient and well organized hive.

Perhaps for the beekeeper.  I know Roger Morse advocated this set-up but I also know that 
my queens would run out of room in one week in a single deep at the peak of brood rearing. 
 If you limit the brood rearing this way, you will get much less honey.  Honey production 
is all about field force strength and space.

>>A third way is the use a deep or two and then all shallows, with no
excluder. The larger brood combs seem to hold the queen in the brood nest; the smaller 
frames seem less inviting to her and she is not apt to wander up very often. 

A deep or two will not keep brood out of the shallow supers.  The bees will build honey 
comb between the tops and bottoms of the frames in their quest for continuous comb and 
will push the honey up and out as far as they can as they set up their oval brood nest 
that will reach up into the shallow supers.  I have seen this many times.

If you give them only a limited number of shallows, to keep the queen down with overhead 
honey, the broodnest will get flooded with nectar and you'll have crowding swarms on your 
hands.

Waldemar
Long Island, NY

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