Queen excluder cleaner tool

01 · WHY IT NEEDS CLEANING

The gap narrows season after season

An excluder works on a difference of millimetres: the worker gets through and the queen does not. Being a compulsory passage, the bees propolise it and wax builds up on the wires, so that gap keeps closing. Once it narrows enough, the workers cross less and less willingly — and the blame gets put on the flow.

02 · HOW TO SCRAPE IT

Cold, and following the wires

With the excluder cold and laid flat, drag along the line of the wires, never across them: crossways the blade spreads them and throws off the very gap you were protecting. The short blade goes between wire and wire without forcing. If the wax is soft from the sun, let it cool.

03 · METAL ONLY

On plastic, this tool does damage

On a plastic excluder the steel scores and deforms the slots, and once opened up they no longer do their job. For those there are plastic combs with teeth cut to the grid. Check what yours is made of before you start: it is a mistake with no way back.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Its place is the end-of-season overhaul, with the excluders off the hives and on the bench.