> Yes pressure washing excluders still works and the method of choice
> for a few old beekeeping dinosaurs. He He.

Okay, truth!

Frankly, I have never used my pressure washer on excluders, but I thought it
was worth a try. <g>

Once in a while, we boiled them, and got some wax.  The rest of the time, we
just used them as-is.

Many years ago, I made a stack, threw gasoline on and lit a match.  That
really cleaned them off.  Surprisingly, they were still fine and lasted
another twenty years and I sold them for more that I paid for them.  Just
the same...  there are better ways.  As bob says, they have a fine finish
and are a precision instrument.

I don't know if I agree, though, with the statement someone made that
bending one wire makes them useless.  Some time back, I heard that only the
centre part matters (probably on BEE-L?) and the queens just hunt around the
middle part, so we put a whole bunch on crossways -- like a thousand?  A few
queens went up, most didn't, but we stopped doing that.

Anyhow, this is a great discussion, and we are hearing lots of differing
views.

allen
A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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