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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Murray McGregor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 4 Mar 2005 21:39:42 +0000
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In message <[log in to unmask]>, Alan Riach <[log in to unmask]>
writes
>The bees don't seem to particularly appreciate pristine new looking
>excluders, they like a bit of coating, but I have noticed that they are
>fussy about the dimensional construction of excluders.

Having hundreds of both styles in service I can honestly say there is
not a lot of evidence in our outfit to say the bees prefer one to the
other. Get the spacing between the boxes (and the frames above and
below) correct and all seem almost equally well accepted. Even the
perforated zinc sheets, with no addition of bee space, are passable
although we use these last.

>Here in the uk, some of the equipment makers construct wire excluders
>with the wire in the centre of the frame(incorrectly IMO), some with the
>wire neatly set in a wire depth on the underside of the frame(underside
>for top beespace hives).

Dave Cushman might come in on this, but I think you would be hard
pressed to find centre placed ones made much after 1970, if even so
recent, as I cannot date any we have to later than 1960. This is a
pattern normally called a Waldron, and the support for the excluder
wires lies vertically and it was necessary to centre the excluder in the
frame to allow the wire to have enough room in the bee space between the
boxes. They were superceded almost immediately the somewhat superior
Hertzog grids became available.

This grid allowed placement on one side of the frame, reducing the
fragility of construction that the Waldron entailed. The bees may prefer
it a little, but we cannot say that there is much difference as far as
the bees are concerned. The biggest issue we find is the British
practice of having different spacings in the brood chambers and in the
honey supers. ( I refer to the practice of Hoffmans in the brood boxes
and Manleys in the honey supers, a practice that, if starting again
today, I would never adopt ) This causes ventilation issues and if the
wood of the boxes shrinks a bit with age, can also cause bee space
problems and obstructed passage up the hive for the bees (especially
over the centre combs of the nest), and this in turn sometimes leads to
some quite spectacular burr/brace comb issues in the excluder area.
Reasonably accurate bee space and same spacing above and below radically
reduces these issues and make the choice of excluder type secondary.

> (All components put on the hive should have a clear top
>beespace and no underspace)

Of course this depends what hive type you have and even then, what your
national variant is like. Even something as universal as Langstroth is
top bee space most places, but bottom bee space in some.

As for cleaning excluders? Well I agree most with Allen. Unless the wax
is causing an obstruction to the bars above sitting down properly we
just leave them as they are, and the bees do what they want with the
ladder comb. Quick rip off with the butt end of the hive tool if some
has to be removed.

--
Murray McGregor

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