Bamboo queen excluder

01 · THE SIZE

Measure your box: Dadant and Langstroth are not one single size

It is the question that reaches this page most, and the only one that prevents a return. This excluder measures 515 × 430 mm on the outside, and it has to rest flat on the rim of the box without overhanging. To place it against two boxes from our own catalogue: a Dadant Blatt body measures 500 × 430 mm outside, so this grid is 15 mm too long for it; a ten-frame Langstroth measures 508 × 424 mm and leaves it almost flush. But every maker and every country has its own figure: take a tape, measure the outside of your brood box and compare it with those 515 × 430 before ordering.

02 · THE FRAME

It is not meant to be cut down, least of all blind

The corners are reinforced with metal pieces, and the frame is what holds the spacing between the bars. Taking it apart to trim a centimetre off each side weakens that structure and upsets the gap: where the bars open too far, the queen goes up — which is exactly what you bought it to prevent. If the figures do not match, the answer is not the saw but a different size of excluder. On the material: bamboo is plant matter, so it does not rust like metal — but, like any wood, it works with moisture, and that governs how it must be stored.

03 · USE AND CLEANING

It goes on when it is needed, and it is scraped dry

Fit it when there is enough population and flow to occupy the super: an excluder over a colony that has no reason to go up only adds a barrier that slows the traffic. If the bees are not moving up, check first the propolis and wax bridges narrowing the slots, the strength of the colony and the space available. The grid also holds back most drones, so do not leave drones above with no way out. To clean it, scrape it dry with the frame flat and without forcing the bars: no soaking — bamboo is wood and works with moisture — and always stored dry.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Before each season, check that the frame has not warped and that all the gaps keep the same spacing: a bowed excluder stops resting flat and opens a side gap the queen goes through.