From: Waldemar: 'I suppose a small section of queen excluder over the inner
hole and a deep with queenless eggs/brood on top of the inner cover could do
the trick for a vertical hive? There would be an exchange of queen scent
but it would be much reduced in the top deep.'
Waldemar implies that queen pheromone is airbourne. As I remember
reading/believe, queen pheromone is transmitted by contact - the queen
leaves footprint pheromone wherever she patrols and the bees take pheromone
off her body by licking (sounds delicious!). I wonder if she also leaves
pheromone in every cell into which she has squeeezed to lay an egg - or
maybe when first checking the condition/size of cell by inserting her
antennae / fore-legs. So the queen excluder may not be so important as
distance - putting a honey super between the lower brood chambers and the
box of raised brood. I doubt the queen would travel over the honey to
revisit the brood at the top unless short of space below.
There must be many who have experience with various arrangements for
inducing supercedure.........
Robin Dartington
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