Editing Queen excluder

{{Multiple issues|
{{Refimprove|date=April 2008}}
{{Original research|date=July 2017}}
}}
{{Infobox tool
| name           = Queen Excluder
| image          = Beekeeping queen excluder.jpg
| image size     = 250px
| caption        = A queen excluder
| other_name     = 
| classification = Beekeeping
| types          = 
| used_with      = [[Langstroth hive]]
| inventor       = [[Petro Prokopovych]]
| manufacturer   = various
| model          = 
| related        = 
}}

In [[beekeeping]], a '''queen excluder''' is a selective barrier inside the [[beehive]] that allows [[worker bee]]s but not the larger queens and [[drone (bee)|drone]]s to traverse the barrier. The bars have a distance of 4.2 millimeters. The barrier grid was probably invented around 1890. 

The purpose is to prevent the queen from moving from the brood chamber to the honey chamber. There she would lay her eggs between storage cells with honey, so that bee larvae or eggs would get into the honey during centrifuging.

Queen excluders are also used with some queen breeding methods. 

== Design ==
[[File:Beginner's bee book (Page 129) BHL18265364.jpg|thumb|Depiction of a queen excluder, ''Beginner's bee book'' by Frank C. Pellett, 1919]]
Typically, the queen excluder is either a sheet of perforated metal or plastic or a wire grid in a frame with openings are limited to {{convert|0.163|in}}. Queen excluders can also be constructed of [[hardware cloth]] screen, of which #5 [[hardware cloth]] is often cited in references as sufficient for allowing worker bees to pass, but not queens.

== Purpose ==
[[File:Queen rearing.JPG|thumb|left|I. Ferman rearing queens using excluders, [[Mikveh Israel]] apiary, 1964]]
The intent of the queen excluder is to limit the queen's access to the [[honey super]]s. If the queen lays eggs in the honey supers and a brood develops in them, it is difficult to harvest clean honey. It makes fall management more difficult. Queen excluders are removed in the [[autumn]]; otherwise, the queen would not be able to move with the [[winter cluster]] and would die from [[hypothermia|exposure]]. A replacement queen can be difficult to introduce because the bees will not be accustomed to the new queen's [[pheromone]]s. New queens can be killed by the hive. Therefore, the death of a queen in winter is dangerous for a hive and can be expensive for a [[beekeeper]].

Queen excluders are used with some queen breeding methods, especially as a way to allow queen cells to be built in the same hive with an existing queen, or as a way to house multiple queens in the same hive.<ref>{{cite book|last=Doolittle|first=G.M.|title=Scientific Queen-rearing as Practically Applied; Being a Method by which the Best of Queen-Bees are Reared in Perfect Accord with Nature's Ways|year=1889|publisher=Thomas G. Newman & Son|location=Chicago|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924003263724}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2017}}

==Reception==
[[File:Absperrgitter auf Magazinzarge.jpg|thumb|Metal queen excluder on top of a brood box]]
Opponents of the use of queen excluders claim that excluders lower honey quality, influence colony dynamics, and alter labour dynamics. A 2024 study found that queen excluders had no effect on colony dynamics, and did not reduce honey yield nor the amount of brood produced. Studies on honey quality and labour dynamics are ongoing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bundschuh |first=Jana |last2=Rappel |first2=Herbert |last3=Bock |first3=Andreas |last4=Balleisen |first4=Ute |last5=Daiser |first5=Markus |last6=Friedmann |first6=Günter |last7=König |first7=Werner |last8=Miltenberger |first8=Tobias |last9=Müller |first9=Manuela |last10=Müller |first10=Robert |last11=Poeplau |first11=Norbert |last12=Roosen |first12=Alix |last13=Schlotter |first13=Alexander |last14=Sedlmair |first14=Christian |last15=Weiler |first15=Michael |date=February 2024 |title=Effects of queen excluders on the colony dynamics of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) under biodynamic management |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13592-023-01041-9 |journal=Apidologie |language=en |volume=55 |issue=1 |doi=10.1007/s13592-023-01041-9 |issn=0044-8435|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{bee-stub}}
{{BeeColonyMemberTypes}}
[[Category:Beekeeping tools]]
[[Category:Ukrainian inventions]]