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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Chris and Lisa Laudeman <chrisandlisa AT laudeman.com>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: OCBA <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Advice on managing without queen excluders
  • Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 14:41:51 -0400

Thanks Randall,

That was the case last spring.  It was that late summer/over-winter time that threw it off. Since I just put additional supers on with the excluders, I'm set up like you suggested.

Every now and then I seem to do something right.

Chris


On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:08 PM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:
Chris,

If the queen is well-behaved she won't cross a thick (several inches), solid band of capped honey to lay above it. That's the secret to not using queen excluders -- if you have a honey band at the top of the nest (e.g. all across the top of the frames in the 2nd deep) then you are good to go. The trick is what to do early in the season before there is a nice honey band.

One solution is to use a queen excluder for a week or so at the beginning of the season until the honey band is built. Then remove it. That's what I do.

I'd be very interested to hear of any other techniques that people have successfully used.

Randall Austin


On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 12:15 PM, Chris and Lisa Laudeman <chrisandlisa AT laudeman.com> wrote:
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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