What is a queen excluder?
A queen excluder is a metal or plastic grill (similar to the wire shelving in refrigerators) that is placed between supers. The space between the grills is .16″, which prevents the queen or drones from entering the supers placed above the excluder. Beekeepers place the excluder above the super containing brood to keep the queen from going into the honey supers and laying eggs. Since pollen is usually stored close to the brood, this ensures that the supers will contain only honey. Excluders are usually put on the hives in spring before the main honey flow, and removed in fall after the last harvest of honey.
