Trying Demaree

[reedyfork]

Between making splits and collecting swarms these past several days, I am officially out of room for more colonies (so says my wife!). With some of my remaining strong colonies, I'm using the Demaree method for the first time to make vertical splits. Not excited about eventually having a deep honey super to lift off the top and deal with, but thought it was worth experimenting to try and prevent swarming and make a lot of honey.

if anyone has experience trying this around here, let me know what you've learned - good and bad!

[Jacobs]

I'm playing with a modified Demaree hive now. My queen, capped brood, and some feed/open comb went below the excluder. I added an Imirie shim above the excluder. Next came a super of honey, and then the super of uncapped brood. I went in at day 7 and day 10 and knocked down any queen cells started in the open brood above the excluder. The THEORY behind this is to prevent swarming, keep the growing brood, and collect a larger honey crop above the excluder. Given my experience with bees, the bees in the bottom will have gone into swarm mode any way. I'll probably check later today.

[reedyfork]

I set up Demaree splits on 7 of my colonies, and apparently just in time as ALL were soon to swarm. I had to remind myself to find my marked queens first before knocking down the swarm cells just in case they had already taken off! I'll now go back in 7-8 days to cut out all of the emergency queen cells they build in the brood chamber I've moved to the very top above an excluder and two medium honey supers.

My main question now will be whether or not I'll need to remove more brood frames from the bottom in the next few weeks, or if they'll be too distracted by the flow to consider swarming. As I learned the past couple of seasons, my bees WILL swarm in the middle of the main flow, despite my best efforts...

[reedyfork]

Yes, this Demaree thing is a lot of work, but so far so good! I just went through all 7 colonies, knocked down a few random queen cells throughout, and moved a frame or two more of brood up to the top in each colony (and replaced those with either foundation or drawn comb down below). So I'll have to return again in 7-8 days, check those new brood frames now in the top for queen cells, and hope by then the flow will be in full force and I can leave them alone after that!

Populations are all definitely STRONG, and I did see either the original queen or eggs in the bottom deep, so no one has swarmed (yet)...

[reedyfork]

Final update on my first Demaree experience. I was successful on 4 out of 7, learned a bit, and will certainly try again next year. A few things for anyone interested:

1. One 'failure' was due to me manipulating too late. I think they were too close to swarming (capped cells) and swarmed anyway even after doing the Demaree.
2. The other 2 'failures' either involved a queen going through the excluder, me missing a queen cell above the excluder, two queens, or the bees moving eggs around. Either way, I just discovered brood both above and below the excluder, so instead of harvesting a deep full of honey, I just removed the excluder and turned them back into double-deeps.
3. I'm still relatively strong and fit, but a 10-frame deep full of honey stacked up at eye level is VERY heavy and difficult to manage. I will make adjustments next year to eliminate that issue - either trading that deep for mediums after the initial brood hatches out or at least moving it back down as low as possible.
4. The 4 'successes' DID produce more honey so far than my other colonies. Most others will fill 2 mediums, but these Demarees have filled 2 mediums plus a deep!

[Wally]

Try a horse mounting block to work those tall hives. Just search Google for ""horse mounting steps""

[hazmatinferno]

Thank you for this information and sharing your experience.

[DuaneB]

Still thinking of giving this a try this year? If so, when do you plan to start the method this year?


Thanks.

[reedyfork]

It looks like I started mine the first of April last year, but that was pushing it (with some already in swarm mode). I thought about starting a couple today, but that would have meant checking them next Tues/Wed when the weather is supposed to be so cool. So,,, I might look at starting with my few strongest double-deeps this Fri/Sat.

[DuaneB]

Keep me posted, if you don't mind. Thinking about giving this a try. like you I'm not particularly keen on extracting honey from brood frames.

[reedyfork]

I'm going to wait a little longer. Over the weekend, I was still not seeing any real swarm cells (maybe just a few uncharged cups). Instead of starting any Demarees, I did a couple reversals and decided to split down my two strongest double deeps to fill some holes with walk-away splits.

This coming weekend looks nice again, so I might see about starting Demarees then.

[royl]

Im looking forward to hearing about this year's success!

[reedyfork]

I performed Demaree splits on 10 of my 30 colonies this past weekend. Wow, they were not very happy! Going through all 20 frames to find the queen, shaking bees, and pulling the bottom deep off the bottom board all made for some exciting times.

In checking all my colonies, most had some uncharged queen cups, but only one (not a strong colony and not one I did a Demaree on) had capped swarm cells. Hopefully I hit it at just the right time, because they sure were filling up with nectar and pollen!

Lessons:

1. I bought one of the foldable aluminum work platforms to use this year, and it makes a world of difference not having to bend over that extra couple of feet. I will now use it as a stepping stool to be able to access the top deep.
2. I used up all of my deep boxes without thinking, but doing this again, I'll always have a couple extras empty ones to help transfer and hold frames. This will avoid popping a full box off the bottom board, which my bees HATE!
3. The hardest part for me was finding enough mostly-empty frames, or frames without brood to put in the bottom with the queen. Everything was full of brood or full of resources, and the 3 empty foundations I gave them ~ March 7 were already drawn out and full of brood too. I'll plan better next year to have new foundations and empty drawn comb on hand rather than relying on finding empty frames in the hive...

I'll be cutting out all queen cells in the top this coming weekend.