BBKA Forum

Ive lost one of the little qx that goes between the brood chamber and the stores compartment.
The box is one of the imitation ones bee equipment were shovelling out for £7 a couple of years ago,so it may never had one in the first place.
I can easily tinsnip a new one up from an old national,but why is it actually needed?

I had assumed it’s because they are so small and specifically to get queens hatched and mated and then retrieved for use elsewhere.

The feed compartment once empty of feed quite often gets wild comb built in it and if the queen takes refuge in there or even tries to lay it up with brood, it can be tricky to fish her out. Easier to keep her confined to the removable combs?

Also I suppose there is a theoretical risk of her drowning in syrup if she wandered in whilst there was syrup in there. Personally I always use fondant or set honey anyway.

It's not absolutely necessary to have the excluder in place, although Patrick's comments are valid. The Warnholts mating hive doesn't have an excluder to keep the queen from the feeder.

I keep a plastic QE and cut bits off for such events.

Wild comb in the feeder is a PIA if/when Q gets into it.

I use off cuts of Queen excluder to go under all my mini ashforth feeders when feeding on the top bars of nucs..I would hate to find a drowned Queen in september.