>Dear Bob Neely,
>
>Thanks for all your info on Bee-L.  I always look forward to reading
>anything you have to say.  I read a letter you sent to an 11 year old
>young man that is just starting his first hive.  My three daughters (11,
>10, and 8 years old) and I just started our first hive in April.  I also
>bought one for a high school senior down the street.  This has been a
>great thing in all of our lives.
>
>To that 11 year old young man, you said that he should use a queen
>excluder.  I was told by the store where I spent $600 for my two
>unassembled hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees from
>doing much up there.  The lady at the shop said it really is a bee
>excluder.  I don't know what to do.  Please advise.
>
>A second problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought
>bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other is
>more like a friendly kitten.  Why is this?  I was thinking that if I
>didn't do anything to the mean hive for six weeks, all the mean bees would
>have been replaced by new young bees and the temperament might be better.
>Is this true?
>
>Thanks again for all you add to Bee-L.
>
>Charles in Salt Lake City
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I have 4 hives that I checked yesterday- 2 with queen excluders and 2
without.  On the hives without, I now have 2 full supers of honey on each.
On the hives with the excluders, I have less than 1 full super of honey on
each.  Also, the hives with the excluders have very little brood-it seems
the bees have crammed the hive bodies full of honey (not wanting to to go
thru the excluders).  The hives without the excluders have tons of brood
(and no brood in the honey supers).  I have pulled the excluders off.
 
Robert Henderson
Operations Manager
WSIU-TV / SIUC Broadacsting Service
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901
(618) 453-6191