Queen in honey super

Signs or indications

Eggs or developing workers or drones above a queen excluderqueen excluder:
a metal or plastic device that allows workers to pass through opening slots or wires, but is spaced to keep the queen and drones from passing through.
.

Description

To control the area of the brood nest and help ensure separation of brood from food, beekeepers may add a plastic, metal, or wire queen excluderqueen excluder:
a metal or plastic device that allows workers to pass through opening slots or wires, but is spaced to keep the queen and drones from passing through.
above the brood boxes and beneath honey supers, to confine the area of the brood nest. This ensures separation of brood in lower boxes from honey stores in upper ones. The excluder confines the queen to the lowest box(es) of the nest. 

On rare occasions, worker (or drone brood) may be found above the queen excluderqueen excluder:
a metal or plastic device that allows workers to pass through opening slots or wires, but is spaced to keep the queen and drones from passing through.
. This could be due to a queen being accidently trapped above an excluder, a queen that somehow gets above the excluder, or to laying workers. If there are adult drones above the queen excluderqueen excluder:
a metal or plastic device that allows workers to pass through opening slots or wires, but is spaced to keep the queen and drones from passing through.
, and no upper exit, the trapped drones seeking to get through the excluder openings become trapped and die.

Resources

“2 QUEENS, One Hive! I find Brood Above the Queen Excluder in MY Struggling Hive. Two Queens or One?”. YouTube, uploaded by 4dhoneybee, 21 September 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2c4NObqeyA

“BEEKEEPING: Queen found above Queen Excluder.”. YouTube, uploaded by Jeff Heriot, 23 June 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj4BbBeP_Ds

MAAREC. n.d. Beekeeping Equipment. Mid-Atlantic Apicultural Research and Extension Consortium. Accessed 2023. https://canr.udel.edu/maarec/beekeeping-equipment/

 Queen on frame of ripening nectar above queen excluder; photo by The BeeMD photo collection
Queen on frame of ripening nectar above queen excluder; photo by The BeeMD photo collection
 Adding queen excluder above brood before supering; photo by Dewey M. Caron
Adding queen excluder above brood before supering; photo by Dewey M. Caron
 Queen excluder; photo by The BeeMD photo collection
Queen excluder; photo by The BeeMD photo collection