Queen Excluders

[Ely]

Hi. I'm new here. I'm thinking of trying this season without queen excluders and wonder how people who don't use them find it and are there any special methods that need to be implemented. Thanks

[wee willy]

This is an old chestnut my friend ! The 'withs' and 'withouts' both have their devotees! A search of past posts should provide you with oceans of copy of the pros and cons ! I use QXs simply because I was taught to and can't see sufficient advantage in making a change ,which doesn't imply that there are none
Vim


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[Ely]

Thanks

[gavin]

I usually use them but if the brood nest has an arc of honey above then I'll go without. The first super of the spring often goes on for a few days without a QX if I'm trying to get them to use the super faster than they otherwise might. Then I try to get one in when bees are working it but before the queen lays (not always easy). However bred-in comb is useless for cut comb and not what many who extract normally would like to see. Murray McGregor lets his bees loose without a QX on the heather into boxes of standard brood size. It fits his way of doing things as they simply remove frames of stores around the brood nest at harvest time and then feed for winter with syrup (Apisuc these days). It maximises his honey crop but needs more feeding for the winter.

I don't think that you have heather anywhere near, but if you have a late crop of honey it would work too.

What you will find if you go without QXs is that the bees are likely to chimney upwards through the boxes and there will be quite a bit of the honey harvest to the sides.

[chris]

I don't use them, and never have. The less equipment the better, and I'm sure the queen knows what she wants to do better than I do. And besides, I love the extra protein in my honey:eek:

[drumgerry]

I confess to being a dyed in the wool queen excluder user. I find it comforting knowing where my queen is and that I can get away with not quite so gentle handling of supers. I'm sure I could adapt to not using them but I find life simpler with them. Purely my own preference though.

[Ely]

Thanks guys

[brothermoo]

I use OSB hives and the rose hive method advocates no QX's but it's handy to have a few about for queenright queen rearing and other tasks

[Jon]

Good to see another member of the Belfast mafia on board!

[brothermoo]

Yeah Jon, finally posting... Must be the hype of the conference getting to me :)

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[gavin]

Excellent - good to see you here BM. We'll be expecting near-live updates on the UBKA conference and especially any presentations made by forum members!

[brothermoo]

:D
Can I live stream presentations by said members? Hehe
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[gavin]

Live stream, YouTube, you name it, let's go for it! But would it help or hinder the growth of the forum?

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[Jon]

These young whipper-snappers with their fancy dan technology!

[Neils]

I have trying to post through the mediums of both interpretive dance and semaphore with limited success

[wee willy]

Morse code may make a come back?
WW


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[Jon]

Morse code from an iPad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7nR0YdPgxI), now there's an idea.

[brothermoo]

1427
Here is Jon presenting his talk on how to set up a queen rearing group

No live streams today sorry :)
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[wee willy]

Nice one Jon,
de G4WIL R


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[Jon]

Got to be some doppelganger!
Never quite worked out how to fire that death ray with a crank handle at the front of the podium.

[gavin]

And what a fine, handsome young(ish) man he looks too. Did he try the interpretative dance and semaphore?

[Jon]

Must try and lose a bit of that gut over the upcoming bee season.
There were quite a few Sbai forum members there.
Keith Pierce did a couple of presentations on queen rearing and preparation of nucs.
Mervyn Eddie did a presentation on Thymol and varroa treatment.
Fireman Moo the part time photographer and smartphone semaphore operator was there of course
I saw Ruary but didn't get a chance to say hello.
Kevin Lincoln was on the Bibba stand.
And Phil McAnespie represented the interests of Scotland on our godforsaken windswept part of the world.
It was about 3c with horizontal rain for most of yesterday.