Purpose. The intent of the queen excluder is to limit the queen's access to the honey supers. 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.

Are queen excluders necessary?

The usual purpose of a queen excluder is to keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers. Until your bees draw out most of the frames in the brood boxes, you have no use for honey supers and, therefore, no use for a queen excluder. ... So before using an excluder, always make sure it is in good shape.

Do commercial beekeepers use queen excluders?

Many – perhaps most – commercial beekeepers do not use queen excluders, believing that by restricting the movement of the honeybees, the queen excluder inhibits the maximum production of honey. Old-timer beekeepers laughingly refer to queen excluders as “honey excluders”.