plastic QE

[Nadia]

I have put a flat plastic QE on the brood box of one of my hives (wooden BS national), and the bees have propolised it all over to the brood box and the super... has anyone a tip to avoid upsetting the bees in trying to inspect the hive when you are on your own? The QE is completely stuck to brood and super boxes?

[AdamD]

Hi Nadia, welcome to the forum.
I use a mixture of wire and plastic excluders and definitely prefer the wire ones. At this time of year bees tend to use more propolis and with warm weather it can get sticky and annoying - and some colonies use more than others - you may just be unlucky with your colony. It can be awkward when lifting heavy supers only to find that the excluder has attached itself to the bottom of them - or is half attached and won't allow you to lift the super off cleanly. My suggestion would be to try vasalene on the top surface so the supers come off more easily. Then it's a matter of slowly lifting the excluder off and not trying to ping bees when it suddenly comes free.
One thought is that you could use a wedge or spacer abut 25 mm wide - lift up the super with your hive tool and put the wedge in place. This will allow you to lever the excluder down without the weight of the super in one hand or without having to lower the super down again and crush bees.

[Jim Norfolk]

A small wedge is invaluable when handling heavy supers, particularly if propolised. Lever up the box with a hive tool and slide the wedge in to stop super dropping on and squashing any bees poking their heads out. A wedge can also be used when puttting boxes back. Use a puff of smoke to drive any bees back in and gently slide out the wedge.

[Good_Bee]

Plastic QE's are a bugger to clean and do warp over time, so I've moved to flattened wireframe ones in my poly hives. A quick flame over with the blow torch at the end of the year and they're completely clean.

[nealh]

Plastic is the devil, I only use framed wire jobbies.

[Nadia]

Thank you all for your replies.
I hadn't thought of the wedge, and that is an excellent and simple solution (the best ones!!). I also modified some platic QE by putting thin strips of wood along the 4 edges, top and bottom. Since then, that's better, but not as easy as with the wooden and wired QEs!

[AdamD]

Plastic QE's are a bugger to clean and do warp over time,

Yep - they do become concave or convex over time and with the knowledge dawning that plastics are just bad for the environment in so many ways (microplastics in the oceans and the food chain for example) maybe long-lasting metal and wooden ones are the way to go.
Has anyone tried the bamboo ones that an online supplier offers?

[Patrick]

Good Bee summed it up for me. There are always innovations introduced and some are better than others. The big driver is usually price these days and competition means if you don't offer the cheap alternative somebody else will and how are we supposed to know without trying?

The flat metal queen excluders were standard fare when I started and had several shortfalls similar to the plastic version. I have to use them now and again and wince when I do. The wired ones are IMHO much better (and pricier) but some early versions inexplicably had incorrect bee spacing and often inadequately robust wooden surround frames which broke at the corners after minimal use. The fact you have to make a wooden frame to add to the plastic version or paint everything with petroleum jelly to make serviceable is really annoying.

It's like the AntHill Mobs car in the Wacky Races, with the feet out the bottom - missing the point of a cheaper usable alternative. I have plenty of tried and discarded beekeeping items knocking around so am not in any way immune. Don't even start me on fishing tackle..