The Queen Excluder is a grid of metal or plastic that fits between the Brood Boxes and the Honey Supers; the spaces in the grid allow worker bees to freely pass from the brood boxes up to the honey supers, but the spaces are too small to allow the queen to pass.  Therefore, no brood are raised in the honey combs, keeping the combs free for honey storage.  Usually pollen is stored in the brood boxes, so the honey supers contain only honey.

The BeeCARE queen excluder is light, flexible and easy to handle.  It should be placed on top of the topmost brood box and underneath the bottom honey super.  Its extension tab along the long side should stick out from the edge of the box.  This tab makes it easier to remove the queen excluder if bees have stuck it down with propolis – you should not need to use a hive tool to pull the excluder off.