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Wally, you once told me that workers should be able to access a super from anywhere in the hive. That is, that if they could only access the super from a limited area that they could well not use the super. During the presentation we heard Emmett (?) describe how he turns his queen excluder sideways so the workers could access the super at the front and back ends of the hive without having to go through the queen excluder. As you know, I have to use a modified top bar in the main hive in order to allow access to the super. If the super is added after the colony is established there will be a number of regular top bars with comb which will not allow access overhead. Does this mean the super will not work? Or just not work as well as it could if all bars allowed access?

Thanks!

Emerson said to place the excluder crossways to allow the workers to have "unrestricted" access to the super. The queen will normally stay away from the ends and not find the open ends. Once the workers start working the super from the ends and consider it part of the hive, they will begin to go through the excluder. Then you can put the excluder in its proper position. Many times the workers will not pass through the excluder to a new super that has no comb in it. They don't consider that part of the hive, since access in restricted.

A tbh super is still in research mode, so you will just have to try different approaches. The above should give you an idea of what the bees require.

Oops, sorry Emerson. My ears are fairly well wrecked from running saws for 30 years.

Thanks for the reply Wally. I am recommending to my customers that the best time to add the super is when they are first establishing a colony into the hive. That way all the main hive bars will allow access above. Otherwise I guess they will be part of my research team. It's a good thing beekeepers tend to be adventurous!

Bill

Kurt taught me this excluder trick this pass spring. Never did move it and the queen never did go into the honey supers. Lucky?