I have to second Dave's comments.  By and large, the honey flow
cuts off around June 1 in central North Carolina. We may get the
odd sporadic flow later, but nothing you can count on until fall
aster blooms.  A queen excluder is a honey saver in this case,
excluding the queen from the honey super.  As Dave says, if you
don't use an excluder, you will be feeding all your winter stores
from a Dixie Crystals bag.  I don't use them during the flow, as
it is short and intense, but I put them on during the honey pulling
operation.  I use fume boards, and the queen is usually driven down
out of the honey super by the fumes and I slip the excluder in
right after pulling of the supers.  Then its off to the cucumber
fields.
 
Bill Lord
Louisburg, N.C.>
>[log in to unmask] (Edward Sterling) says:
>>.......my "beeyard" instructor grumped at queen excluders and
said "they
>oughta be called 'honey excluders'...(grumble grumble)."
>
>Allen Dick has a given a good rundown of principles that apply
here, and I'll
>give a hearty "amen" to his comments, only adding:
>
>In areas with spotty, sporadic or extended weak flows (like SC
coastal areas
>after the spring flow), if a hive is in three boxes, with a good
(young)
>queen, and no excluder, you'll often arrive at fall with a
powerful colony,
>three boxes of brood, and not a drop of honey. It can get real
expensive to
>give hives ALL their winter feed, so I have to have thel bees in
a single
>deep under an excluder by July 1, if not sooner.
>
>[log in to unmask]     Dave Green
>
 
 
--
WILLIAM G LORD
E-Mail  : wglord@franklin
Internet: [log in to unmask]
Phone   : 9194963344