At 03:16 PM 11/16/98 -0700, you wrote:
 
>p.s. - One idea I can't seem to keep lit around the lab is the need for new
>size(s) of excluders to deal with these "new" smaller queens. maybe some on
>this list might try punching out a few this winter and researching  - this
>needs quite a few tests. je.
 
What I would try is an old idea using a new material. (This is only a test
of an old idea used many years ago by old time beemen and was used or
incorporated into many comb honey supers and called a metal section frame
rest in the old time beekeeper speak.)
 
Take some aluminium foil and cover two inches of the parameter of the
excluder all sides top and top and bottom. (other more permanent material
could be used)
 
* Old time beekeepers used flat tin that extended about 1 1/2 inches into
the hive. The idea is that most movement of the queen up and down is from
the outside walls of the hive.
 
The obvious question is does it work? On this one I can not say as I long
ago gave up on honey excluders and have had no reason to test it but for
the old time beekeepers it worked and this was last confirmed to me in the
80's by Homer Len Foot a Arizona beekeeper and the last California State
Bee Inspector who saw it with his own eyes in a old time beekeepers outfit
hidden in the mountains of northern California.
 
It sure is worth a look and its about as cheep a project I can think of.
But be sure and same enough aluminum foil for that turkey, Turkey.
 
ttul, Andy-
 
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