The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-12-28
FENCING OUT THE QUEEN BEE.
5eekeepers Consider Use Of Excluders
Indispensable to Success.


indispensable to Success.
Though a few extracted-liquid-
honey producers claim to be able to
do without queen-excluders, most bee
keepers producing this kind OF honey
find excluders indispensable.
With me and most others, If an up
per story of extracting combs is put
on, the queen will enter and lay eggs
In it. have always considered 1t a
bit nasty to extract honey from combs
containing unsealed brood. II the
pockets of the extractor are revolved
so slowly that the larvae are not dis
turbed, il will take more time to throw
out the honey. Now. time is money,
especially with hired help demanding
present wages. | consider It cheaper
to use queen-excluders than to fuss
with a super full Of combs containing
brood
OF the various kinds of queen-eX-
ehders in use, perhaps the best is the
wood and zinc excluder. 1t consists Of
strips OF zinc. punched full Of holes
of such size as to let worker bees,
but not drones and queens pass
through, between strips Of wood. This
Is the most expensive, but also the
most rigid excluder. 1t does not bend
down in the middle and thus destroy
bee spaces, as sometimes is the case
With excluders made of a single sheet
Of zinc. Single-sheet excluders have
enc advantage-they give more holes
per square foot than the wood and
zinc sort. This makes 1t easier for
the bees to ventilate the top stories
during hot days or when hives are not
shaded.
Another form OF excluder is made
10 be used directly on top of the brood
frames, but they are difficult to re-
move when once glued tight by the
bees.
Recently another excluder has been
put on the market. Instead Of the
strips of zinc between the strips OF
wood, galvanized wires, held the cor
rect distance apart by small pieces Of
metal, are substituted. This gives
much more space for the bees to pass
through. A prominent honey-produc-
er of Michigan thinks that during
some seasons the swarming tendency
OF bees is increased by the excluders
hindering free communication between
upper and lower stories. That to
some extent would be overcome by
the more open excluder.
l have only one fault to find with
these wood-and-wire excluders or,
rather, with their patentee and manu-
facturers-they are nearly again as
expensive as the ordinary kind
Comb-honey producers should be
able to do without excluders. Queens
very seldom go up to lay into sections
when there is full set of combs be-
low. When, however, the brood cham.
Der, for reasons that cannot be de-
tailed here, is contracted to five or
six frames, all fairly prolific queens
will deposit eggs in the sections. Here,
then, excluders must be used.
Queens will also lay in sections
when there is no drone comb in the
brood chambers. OF course, queen
excluders are a remedy. There is.
though, another less expensive way
TO fill sections with full sheets of foun.
dation. In this case, there being no
chance for the bees to construct
drone comb, there will be no incentive
for the queens to go above
Some bee-keepers do not object to
the Matching of drones in the sections,
as such sections, after the hatch, are
filled with honey and sealed. Such
sections ought not to be put on the
market After a bee has emerged. a
fine cocoon is left in the cell-not a
fit thing for human mouths to chew
Another case where an eXcluder
must be used is when swarm is put
into an empty hive, and a super at
once put on top. If the super CON
tains drawn ont comb, the brood nest
will be established in it. The exclud.
er forces the bees to establish the
brood nest below where it belongs
F. A. Strohschein, in the Country
Gentleman.
The Stinuless Bee