Hive Top Queen Excluder

This thing is a queen excluder which fits into the standard 2" diameter hole found in most Langstroth-style inner covers. The excluder is a collared ring that fits into the hole, with the excluder comprised of 1 mm diameter rods with a gap of 4.1 mm between them. This gap size allows worker bees to move through the excluder, but the holes are too small for a queen.

This excluder has a number of potential uses, but is a somewhat specialized item. A few possible uses include:

1) Along with a queen-excluding entrance reducer, this can be used to prevent queens from leaving with swarm. While not the best way to control swarming in the spring, it can work as a stop-gap measure until you have time to perform a proper hive inspection.

2) It can be used to force your queen to work a specific box. By placing an inner cover with this excluder between boxes, you can keep your queen in a specific box, while still leaving access for worker bees to care for brood in the other boxes.

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