How to Insert a Queen Excluder & Recycling Propolis

 

I remember a time a few years ago when I drove home from the bee yard crying.

I had just inserted a queen excluder and I was pretty certain I'd crushed all the bees under it when I put the super on top.

I returned a week later and didn't find a dead bees pinned under the excluder so I things turned out okay after all.

But to help you, when you want to put the excluder on you may find the deep box boiling with bees.  If that's the case you need to smoke them to get them to move down.

 

You should do this whenever you're putting a box or excluder on in order to make room so they don't get crushed.

Also bear in mind if you had a super in play already then there could be bees hanging under it, in which case you can set the super on it's side and smoke the bottom to push the bees back inside the box.

Then when you put your boxes on top you won't crush bees, or go home crying because you thought you did.

 

Queen excluders resemble propolis mats and often the bees will put propolis all over the excluder.  Don't every throw away any propolis scrapings.  Just watch this video (below) where I put a glob of propolis on top of the excluders after removing them.

 

 

I set all the excluders out for the bees to clean the propolis off.  They recycle it and it's especially needed in the fall to help winterize their hive.  After about 4 days that glob of propolis was completely gone.

Bees Recycling Propolis

If you've gone through a full season in beekeeping you've probably noticed that the bees tend to take their wax and propolies and move it around.

An example would be in the fall when the entrance reducer is put into the hive.  My understanding is that propolis is generally collected in the spring.  I'm not so sure if they can collect it in summer and it most likely isn't available in the fall.

My reading on propolis is that it's a sticky sap collected from tree buds in spring.  It may be that the tree buds is just one source of it though.

With the entrance reducer, I put it in the hive in the fall and yet in early spring when I remove it I'll find  it's well glued into place with propolis.  From what I've observed I'm pretty sure the bees scrounge it from other parts of the hive to use in a spot where it's needed most.

Now, with summer just starting to take off and the warmer weather here, I have a couple of swarms that I collected into hives.  These hives don't have a surplus of propolis because they're newer.

Whenever I have a clump of propolis on my hive tool and that I've removed from a hive, I never throw it out.  You can actually make an antiseptic ointment from it for one thing and for another, the bees can reuse it.

I'll leave a glob of it in the bee yard.  As you'll see from the video, the worker is very happy to have found a supply of the stuff already on hand.  You'll see in the video how with great enthusiasm the worker chews pieces of it off the lump and attaches them to her back legs.

Throughout the day I observed her coming back several times and over the next few days the size of the lump got considerably smaller.

The bees mix propolis with bees wax and use it as caulking in their hives.  They can fill holes where drafts and rain come into the hive.  The substance is antibacterial and anti fungal so it also serves as a way to help keep the hive sterile.  There have also been some reports that it's believed propolis helps to reduce disease for the bees.

It makes sense.  The bees always know when they've found something good.