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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Chris and Lisa Laudeman <chrisandlisa AT laudeman.com>
  • To: OCBA <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Advice on managing without queen excluders
  • Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:15:56 -0400

Hi all,

Last year after hearing suggestions to not use queen excluders and having one hive in which the workers just wouldn't put honey above the excluder (they packed the bottom deeps full however),  I decided to try going without.

It worked just fine. Only one hive had few cells of brood on one frame. I usually leave partially filled/uncapped frames in supers to carry the bees through the summer, so I had supers on the hives.  They still had some stores in the supers in the fall, so I left them over the winter and fed them in the fall/winter.

All of the hives came through the winter in great shape and are building up wonderfully.  I got my first chance to open them last Saturday and switch lower and upper deeps around.

I'm sure all of you know what's I next: All of the hives have substantial brood in the remaining supers.  I just moved them to the bottom to let the bees clear out as they move up, but now I'm pondering how to manage supers this year.  I actually slapped empty supers on each hive with a queen excluder for the time being.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Melliferously,

Chris



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