Hi All
 
On  the topic of the excluders, Elroy I aggree fully.
 
A few more observationsI have made:
 
After your bees have finished  their rapid comb building state, they
are less  likely to fill the bee space between a super and the body
frames with burr comb - if  their is a space, the queen will very
infrequenlty cross.
 
Another thing is that if the  queen is crossinnng into a super,
something is wrong - I always welcome more bees, so if a queen wants
more space, give it to her and  split.
 
It may also be to do with the genetics of the bees. I have seen bees
in some areas that seem to actually welcom honney withing the  brood
rearinng area - I think for cooling purposes - honey acts as a heat
sink. So maybe shopping around for queens is the best way  to avoid
excluders - I am sure it's cheaper than a hundred excluders.
 
I was  talking to a guy who was considering putting excluders on his
hives. Here in south africa the cheapest excluder one can get costs
just over R30. For his 1000 hives therefore he would be spending R30
000, 1 tenth of his toatl earnings for that year on excluders. He
tested a batch  on  an apiary with five on, and five off and found
that the difference in honey  production with excluders and without
would lob of more than twice the cost of putting super on. (In other
words the supers would  in total cost him R90 000 a year, which  is
the cost a new truck!!)
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
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