A queen excluder is a crucial tool in beekeeping designed to manage the movement of bees within a hive. Typically composed of a grid or mesh, the excluder is strategically placed between the brood chamber and honey supers – the upper boxes where honey is stored. Its primary function is to prevent the queen and drones, the larger male bees, from entering the honey supers, ensuring that these upper chambers remain free from brood and exclusively reserved for honey storage.

The excluder takes advantage of the size difference between the worker bees and the larger reproductive bees. Worker bees, being smaller, can easily navigate through the excluder's openings, accessing different sections of the hive. However, the queen, with her larger abdomen, and drones, with their bulkier bodies, are hindered by the excluder, restricting their movement to the brood chamber below.

This separation serves multiple purposes: it helps maintain a cleaner and more organized honey harvest, prevents contamination of honey with eggs or larvae, and encourages the efficient use of hive space. Despite its utility, some beekeepers opt not to use queen excluders, arguing that it might restrict the queen's natural movement and disrupt the hive's dynamics.