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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]>
Date:
Tue, 24 Apr 2001 18:45:02 EDT
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This is a question like: Last year I had a Ford truck, but this year some
have suggested a Chevrolet.  What does the group think?

Some "unfair referees" refer to queen excluders as "honey excluders".

For 69 years, I have always used queen excluders, and have always averaged a
higher
honey production than most beekeepers near me.  I WANT TO KNOW EXACTLY WHERE
THE QUEEN IS IN A HONEY PRODUCTION COLONY, and not have to guess or hope.  I
still
raise a good bit of comb honey, and I surely don't want any brood mixed up in
that.

It is true that sometimes bees have to be "enticed" to go through the queen
excluder,
particularly in a weak nectar flow.  However this is no problem at all if you
"bait"
the super, by putting the first super on with no queen excluder in place,
wait about
a week until the bees have filled 2-3 frames with nectar or even bit of
brood, then add a queen excluder and make sure you have put the queen back in
the brood chamber where she belongs.  You have now BAITED the super, and the
bees will readily go through the excluder.

Of course, if you are using IMIRIE SHIMS, there is no reason for forager bees
to go
through the brood chamber at all, for they can leave the colony to forage via
the
Imirie Shim and return by the same route.

Hope I have helped.

George Imirie

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