Plastic Drone excluder 500x500 mm

01 · THE MILLIMETRE THAT MATTERS

5.2 instead of 4.2

A queen excluder is 4.2 mm and keeps out the queen and the drones. This one is 5.2: the drone, wider in the thorax, will not fit, but the worker and the virgin queen will. That millimetre is what turns a grid into a queen-rearing tool instead of a harvesting one.

02 · WHAT IT IS FOR

Controlling who mates

Its main use is controlled mating: fitted to the entrance of a mating nuc, it keeps out drones from elsewhere, so the only males inside are those of the breeding family you have chosen. It is the simple way to know where the genetics come from without setting up a mating station. In artificial insemination it is used the same way, to separate and keep track of the breeder drones.

03 · HOW IT IS FITTED

Cut it with scissors

It is 3 mm plastic, so it cuts to whatever size you need: the entrance of a nuc, the mouth of a mating box, the front of a whole hive. At 500 × 500 mm there is material for several pieces from one sheet, and the cuts do not fray.

04 · IT DOES NOT STAY ON

It is a seasonal tool

Held-back drones pile up at the entrance and get stressed, so the grid goes on during the mating window and comes off afterwards. And bear in mind the other direction: while it is on, the hive's own males cannot fly out either, so it does not get left there and forgotten.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is a drone excluder (5.2 mm), not a queen excluder: if what you want is to keep the queen out of the supers, you need a 4.2 mm one.