RE: finding the queen by straining the bees thru and excluder

I use this method a lot when re-queening. In fact, I have a dedicated
super for it. It works better if the super is brand new. The bees
tend to cling to to the sides of an old one, as it may have bits of
comb or propolis on the inside. I nailed the excluder to the bottom
of the empty super and put a wood rim on the protect the excluder and
help hold it in place. I shake the bees onto the excluder and use
smoke and a bee brush to keep them moving thru the excluder. Some
hives go more easily than others, some seem to want to move up rather
than down. Occasionally one finds rwo and even three queens this way.

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Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>