TheChookKeeper Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Calling all Beehaus owners... I added my supers last week, but both myself and my Dad are a bit concerned with the fit of the queen excluders. Now - it may explain this in the Beehaus instructions, so I apologise if it does, but Omlet haven't seen fit to send these though yet... along with quite a few other bits (different story, I apologise again) Anyway - I am running on the normal 11 frames in the brood body, and added the 2 queen excluders on top of these, then the supers on top. However, there is a gap of probably just under 1cm between the excluder and the wall of the beehaus, just above the entrance door. This worries me - as I think the queen might be able to get up through there, and obviously - I'd really rather she didn't! Does anyone have any experience with this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Steve, why not contact Omlet directly as they might be able to send you the instructions via pdf? Info@Omlet.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChookKeeper Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Spoke to them on Friday in actual fact - they said it should be with me today... I can't see how it could fit any better, as in order to move the QE closer to the entrance wall, thereby closing the dodgy gap, the QE slides up what looks like a little ramp, meaning it raises up, and doesn't fit in the box properly anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 I saw one at the last course I was on. It was empty and we all had a good look at it. I thought the excluders, which come in fours, were very flimsy pingy plastic though pinging bees shouldn't be so much of a problem with top bee space. I wonder if Omlet could design framed, more robust ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Hello, Thank you for your comments... Old Speckled Hen - the Queen Excluder would be flimsy if it had nothing to sit on... as you saw an empty Beehaus which obviously had no frames within, this would have been the case.... I can assure you that the queen excluder sits perfectly well in place above the brood frames and below the super frames and does not ping about when the bees are passing through... TheChookKeeper - the gap that you are talking about on the queen excluder should not create too much of a problem - the Queen usually stays in and around the middle of the brood box and does not venture to the outer frames that often and in my experience, I have not had any issue with the queen finding her way up into the super frames. I will certainly pass your comments over to our design team and ask them to advise if this can be improved on should the need arise... Best regards, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Hello, Thank you for your comments... Old Speckled Hen - the Queen Excluder would be flimsy if it had nothing to sit on... as you saw an empty Beehaus which obviously had no frames within, this would have been the case.... I can assure you that the queen excluder sits perfectly well in place above the brood frames and below the super frames and does not ping about when the bees are passing through... I will certainly pass your comments over to our design team and ask them to advise if this can be improved on should the need arise... Best regards, I did not suggest that the excluder pings about when bees pass through. Plastic excluders can ping bees when you remove them during a hive inspection though my post suggests this may not be so much of a problem with top bee space which the Beehaus has. With this top bee space the excluder will not sit on the brood frames but some mm above them. I simply thought that a framed affair would be more robust. On the last hive inspection I did just three days ago, as part of my beek course, (albeit on a National and not a Beehaus) I found the queen on the underside of the excluder and in my own hive last week she was on the inside of the outside frame, laying. To say that a queen doesn't normally frequent outside frames so that a gap in the excluder should present no problem is surely misleading at the least. But then I am a beginner so what do I know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChookKeeper Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Now - it may explain this in the Beehaus instructions, so I apologise if it does, but Omlet haven't seen fit to send these though yet... along with quite a few other bits (different story, I apologise again) Sure enough, only 6 weeks after my beehaus was delivered, I got the missing parts today - one of which was the instructions - they have made things somewhat more clear on several fronts. It would seem that my problem with the queen excluder is that I have it installed the wrong way around! I have them in line with the frames, rather than at 90degrees to them. Unfortunately, the bees live at my parents' house, so they'll have to wait until the weekend to have their QE's turned around the right way - but there we go! You live and learn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheilaz Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Ah, that's good news, thanks for posting the update, hope it goes well getting it sorted at the weekend. Looking forward to hearing more about everyone's bees as the summer progresses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
