Inserting the Queen Excluder
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The queen excluder sits between the top brood box and the honey super.
The queen excluder sits between the top brood box and the honey super. Workers fit through, the queen, because of her wider abdomen, does not. This keeps the honey combs broodless. Typical slot widths are around 4.2 millimeters; there is no standardized size, and the designs differ considerably in quality.
The timing follows nature, not the calendar: drone frames are inserted and the first honey super added with the cherry blossom. Better too early than too late, otherwise the brood chamber gets honey-bound and the swarming urge sets in. Before fitting it, check that the queen is in the brood chamber and there are no drones in the honey super: they cannot get back through the excluder and die there.
The excluder is not uncontroversial; the mocking name 'honey excluder' comes from the fact that the foragers have to squeeze through it. Anyone using one should watch for smooth, rounded bars and make sure the edge gaps do not let the queen through. Advisory bodies explicitly warn against hanging brood combs into the honey super to lure the bees up: the brood chills, emergency queen cells go unnoticed, and residues end up in the honey super.