What Is a Queen Excluder?

In beekeeping, a queen excluder is a selective barrier inside the beehive that allows worker bees but not the larger queens and drones to traverse the barrier. Queen excluders are also used with some queen breeding methods.

What happens if you don't use a queen excluder?

Not using an excluder means that you run the risk of the queen laying drone brood in the Flow frame cells. The likelihood of this happening can be minimised by placing an empty (foundationless) frame in the brood chamber and allowing the bees to build their drone comb.

Is it better to use a queen excluder?

The usual purpose of a queen excluder is to keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers. Until your bees draw out most of the frames in the brood boxes, you have no use for honey supers and, therefore, no use for a queen excluder. ... So before using an excluder, always make sure it is in good shape.