Re: Queen Excluders > >>What's your opinion? Last year on the advice of a friend with many years >>of experience, I supered over my double-deep brood nests without excluders. >>.... We keep bees in Northern Michigan in the US, in a region with a strong main flow. We generally equalize our hives through some minor flows in June, and super with about two medium(6 5/8) supers per hive. Some have a nice cap of honey over the broodnest(natural excluder), and some of the hives have brood visible between the top bars. Due to our numbers of hives to work, they all get at least two supers as the main flow begins. When we come back to visit the hives on the next visit, we check the supers to be sure they are filling up with honey. If there is some brood, we will let them force the queen down, before we give them any more supers. We run all of our supers with 8 combs and believe it helps to prevent the queens from laying them up. If we were to run singles for honey, I would use queen excluders and keep the brood nest from getting too congested with honey. This could be more work intensive, and leaves the beekeeper with a potential problem of preparing to winter. Kirk