Hello Lloyd & All,
All beekeeping is local and many methods to keep bees. I offer an opinion.

>Disadvantages of using excluders include a greater tendency of the bees to
swarm (unless the brood nest is very large),

This is mostly an old wives tale. Commercial beekeepers return wet supers to
hives so bees will move into supers. Bees have got little reason to move
into dry supers or supers with foundation. Supers do not help overcrowding
if the bees do not move into the supers.

Queens under a queen excluder have plenty of room to lay in two deep
broodnests (more than enough for a prolific queen) UNLESS the brood nest is
plugged with honey/pollen. A problem common to over feeding the winter
before! Over feeding bees is common with new beekeepers.

>and in years with a slow trickle of honey the bees will tend to pack the
brood nest and never get into the supers.

The answer in my opinion is prolific Italian queens. Another answer is the
Immirie shim above the excluder or at least a top entrance to supers. Reduce
the bottom entrance and open wider the top entrance above excluder in severe
cases.

> Then in mid-June he runs the bees (including the queen) out of
the supers with a repellent, puts an excluder under the lower medium, and
adds another super or two.

Old outdated method but has been around for years.

> He also claims that putting light honey in black cells has no
effect on the honey color.  "The color of the nectar that goes into the cell
is the color of the honey that comes out".

I get paid by the light color of my honey and have found the opposite. There
is one exception which is if you put a super of dark comb on and pull and
extract in a week or so little difference is noted. Leave light honey in the
old dark brood comb for a couple months and you will see a difference. At
least I did and one reason I continually rotate out old super comb which has
had
brood in it. A common method in the Dakotas is to use deeps of foundation  ,
get drawn and use as supers for three years, and then rotate into the brood
nest.

The old wives tale that queens prefer dark comb does not hold water for the
most part. Bees can clean and polish a cell of new comb faster than old dark
comb. Research has shown 45 minutes for a dark cell and about half as long
for new comb. I personally want the most prolific bee I can find. Plug those
cells with eggs! Not a picky queen which looks and hardly lays. I hive tool
those queens!

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

Most posts rejected lately about BC article. I think the same must be
happening for Jim Fischer! Moderators know best!


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