> but would like to hear from others who successfully use queen excluders (as do I) for tips for how best to use them.

Here in Australia most beekeepers, with the expectation of the Tasmanians, use queen excluders.

I used a flat wired metal bound excluder.

Excluders work for us as we can take honey without brood in the frames. I use a method of undersupering.  That is there is a brood box plus a honey super.  In winter often the hive is run as a single brood chamber if there are no honey flows. When room is required, the top super is lifted and an empty sticky is placed on top of the queen excluder.  The honey super is them put back on top.  When the second super is about half full, the top super is taken off for extraction.  This way the hive always has stores.

I ran 9 frames in all supers so the mention of alignment does not figure in my case.

For some honey flows, e.g. yellow box I have put on two sticky supers thus making it four high.  The bees have no problem filling both.  The day temperatures then are usually 30 degrees plus centigrade. One year when I was not able to keep up with a honey flow I continually undersupered.  One hive got up to about 7 high.

I have tried putting an empty super on top of the partially full super but in most cases the bees do not like taking honey up through a full super into an empty super.

As I ran all full depth supers I was able to carry out comb rotation.  The aim was three a year so that there was full rotation of the brood comb in three years.

So for me queen excluders were not honey excluders, as some say, but are an integral part of the beekeeping operation.  If I did not use excluders, then the labour component would be very high and production would drop.

Trevor Weatherhead
Australia
 

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