Queen Excluder grid with Wooden frame

01 · THE FRAME IS NOT DECORATION

It gives the bee space

A bare wire excluder gets squashed between brood box and super: the bees cannot move over it, they propolise it and get crushed on closing. The 25 mm wooden frame leaves exactly the gap they need to work both sides, keeps the grid from bending when you lever it up, and makes it last seasons rather than months. The wire is 1.9 mm, welded, so it does not open up with use.

02 · DRONES ARE SHUT OUT TOO

And that is the classic mistake

A 4.2 mm gap stops the queen, but it also stops the drones. Put the excluder on with drones already upstairs and they end up trapped in the super, dying in the grid and blocking it. That is why the excluder goes on when the super is clear of drone brood — and if drones are stuck up there, the answer is to open them an upper entrance so they leave on their own.

03 · WHEN TO PUT IT ON

After they have gone up, not before

A grid over an empty super slows the colony down: the bees hesitate to cross it and the super takes ages to start. The management that works is the other way round — give the super without the excluder for a few days, and once they are working it, lift it and slip the excluder underneath. In autumn it comes off: left on, the cluster can move up in winter and leave the queen below, alone.

04 · CLEANING

Cold, with the hive tool

The wax and propolis that build up between the wires come off by scraping cold — better with the excluder stiff first thing in the morning or after a spell in the freezer: cold, the wax flakes off; warm, it smears everywhere. A clean grid is a grid the bees cross without thinking twice.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is for 10-frame Langstroth and Dadant (515 × 430 mm): check your box size before ordering.