Regular cleaning of excluder

Regular cleaning is the most effective solution for preventing queen excluder clogging. Beekeepers should clean queen excluders periodically, ideally during hive inspections or honey harvests. Cleaning involves removing accumulated propolis and beeswax from the excluder grid. This can be done using a scraper, hive tool, or by freezing the excluder to make the wax and propolis brittle and easier to remove. Regular cleaning maintains open grid spaces, ensuring unimpeded worker bee passage and proper queen excluder function.