We do this in South Florida our method is this: we put on the second deep, as soon as 5 frames are in the second deep we place an empty box any size on the pallet then the second deep with the 5 frames of brood bees and honey then an excluder 2 empty honey supers then tbe bottom deep on top. We don't have swarming issues here. hope that helps
Excellent video, Thank you! Your teaching style and sketches made understanding the Demaree method so clear. I’m going into my 5th year of beekeeping and don’t want more hives, I just want to be able to properly care for the ones I have now. You are a superb teacher! Thank you!!!!!!
Peter… Great explanation. A caveat I suggest is to inform beekeepers watching this is to not base their rewards of a huge crop of honey on this method just because they perform it. Myself who lives in an area where nectar is not as prevalent as some other areas, would have a very hard time getting that much honey as you do in your area. So the Demeree is great for reducing swarming without lessening the hive size but the honey amount is dependent on one’s nectar amount.
Thank you for this great video! I’m a 3rd year keeper with 3 hives - that’s all I want to keep right now due to space and equipment. I run all 8 frame mediums so this should work well for me cause I can easily move boxes around as needed. I will probably still do one 5 frame nuc box just as an insurance but this should work well and give us lots of honey as well as keeping all the girls here. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge and your time!
Absolutely love your videos, i cant wait to do the Demaree method you have taught on is alot of your videos!! I am in North Central Kentucky and Red Maples have been in bloom about 2 weeks and bees are busy. Thank you so much!!
Thanks for great video Peter. New to all of this and just starting third year so this technique will be extremely useful. Getting great numbers of bees in early spring due to insulated hives plus use condensing method. Have also eradicated robber problem completely, year round which stops disease spreading from entry by bees, wasps, hornets and moths. Especially important in spring when pollen is low and stores scarce, so bees prone to robbing hives with dead colonies which may be diseased and end up with fatal consequences for strong colony. Makes for stress free colonies too, often a bigger problem than considered.
Thank you very much for the detailed description. I have a question: what do you do if the lower floor was treated against diseases in the winter... how do you bring it up with a demaree manipulation? Also, during the winter we fed the base layer with sugar water and now in the manipulation all the remaining sugar will rise to the honey layer, is this something you took into account? Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for your video! So easy to understand! I lost both of my hives over winter on my first year 😢 have to start all over again this year but I struggled hard with swarming last year (caught my swarm twice and saved them), but this would help so much!
Hi there. Hope you have got Bees now. If not "You have the perfect Equipment to lure IN a Swarm ! What's not to like about receiving "Free Bees !" Method : Any Hive that has or had Natural Drawn Honey Comb (either fully built out Foundation, or Bee own made Comb) will have the 'attracting' Smell of Bees 'Lived Here' ! A Beekeeper can also add a 'Dot' of Lemon Grass Oil* (Essential Oil from a Pharmacy or Health Store.) It's Strong stuff, so a tiny Splash (dot) on a piece of Cardboard will 'emit'* Faux Queen Phremone in here. : Welcome to this awaiting Home ! 🤞 If you know you might be busy, on on Holiday (Vacation) when in 'Swarm Season : UK late April through to August, in Scotland 🏴 more like May to late July (cooler up here 🤭) A Hive or Nuc Box with Frames of some fully Drawn Comb, and some Foundation too : will get Drawn out Fast ! (Swarms build Wax to the Max.) An empty Box ready to 'move in' will call In your own near by Hive Swarm (that you might not be there to deal with.) And maybe any Swarm in the local District, whose Hive owner may be on a Holiday or busy in there Office. . . Doh ! Let that LGO lure in that 'near departing Swarm'. Better to be caught than up in someone's Chimney. Roof Space or within a partition Wall. . . 😖 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Hope this helps you in this the start of "Swarm Season". 😎 I had x3 caught Swarms last Year. x2 from my own Hives (they found my spare empty Brood Boxes.) Colony made Queens are far superior to one's made via Grafting. (Just my experience of Black Bees (A.M.M) Yes, review their status regularly. But let 'them' make new 'Queen Cells' under careful Management. But NOT lose them in the 'missed' Swarming process. 👀 And I also caught a Swarm at a Friend's place: (more Stripey Bees A.M.M Buckfast-esq) in their Garden, in a Town x6 Miles away. . . Using a Poly Nuc. (It didn't stress out a local eg School, by flying into their Playground). . .did it. 🙃 This out of Town Nuc Hive was Sold on : to make £$'s to Buy more Bee Equipment. Nice. (Wanted to keep my Drone population more Black Bee over Buckfast.) Just my way of keeping my Bees in my locality. 👍
I used the demaree method last year and got 100 lbs . This year I will do the same but lost one hive this winter so I will save a frame with a single capped queen cell to start a replacement hive. Being 73 full deeps are a bear to move so I built a platform and a young neighbor to help. I have had my original hive for 4 years. Thanks for you advice. I’m in central New Jersey .
Thank You, Peter. At the end of my beekeeping life, I think I should try this method. I keep only two hives now, so, there should be time enough to play with them. No swarming too. Perfect tutorial and a great video. Greetings. Adam. Bye.
I did this method past year and I collected 50kg per hive. In addition I put all the queen cells in a special boxes and I had 17 new queens in just one bee hive.
Thank you for the the video and the detailed explanation. It would be way too time consuming in my opinion for anyone over 5 hives. The weight of the top box could become like 80 pounds at 6 feet high. However, my largest concern would be mite treatment with that large of a population and that many boxes. I would just make a split and get less honey. But thats a great thing about beekeeping, there are many ways to do things.
Tip : If a "Box" is to Heavy !? Why not have a 'Spare' on a Roof at Ground Level and MOVE the "Frames" instead ! That way you can do any up 'high' non lifting and still achieve your Goal. 👍 Hope this Helps. 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Or maybe : Change your Hive 'Style' eg for Examples : Use : Horizontal Hive, Try x4 Stacked Nuc Hives : Two Towers: side by side Sharing the Roof and being Queened by x1 Queen in a Standard Brood Box/Under a QE works ! Or try a French Warre Hive or DIY version : Made to suit. . . See Sam Comfort Hive (examples here on TH-cam) : No Heavy Lifting of these ! Get the Idea. . . Think outside the "Box" ! 😁 I can't Lift Heavy Boxes yet I have a H.H using Jumbo Deep Langstroth Frames. X2 Regular Lang Hives : Where I 'move' all Frames into an 'empty box' then reverse all. OK more Work / but my Back doesn't suffer ! Also have several Warre Hives and plenty of spare 'stacked' Nucs (these are my Newer Colonies / overwinter with Young Queens to) which get upgraded to Full Colony status in the Second Year. All means : No Swarming ! Have Young Queens. Any older one gets 'moved on' as a Sold Nuc ! Or gets 'Mashed' and added to my Queen 'Swarm Lure' Potion. 😉
There is a need to make splits every year for replacements as some colonies may not make it through the season or winter. I usually get 2 to 3 deep 10 frame boxes of honey per colony without doing so much work like you do. If a 10 frame deep box of super is to heavy , then I just remove some frames and put them into a spare box when I do inspections. All of my boxes are deep 10 frames and frames are easy to interchange.
I haven’t tried this yet but it looks like i should with at lest some of the hives. Didnt get a very good crop last year with the drought in central iowa. Need to fill the pails again. Thanks for the info !
Yes this something I have to think about and quick I got a few hives not many but enough for me and they are busting out side the hives in big clusters as it is summer here to and hot but lots and lots of bees and full boxes of honey to take off , I got some work cut out for me and possibly lots of stings lol.
Small homesteader and hoping to start a more natural approach I don't think we would go through hundreds of lbs of honey in a year. No plans to sell, not many friends/family to gift to. :-) I'd probably start another box or two in case of one failing. :-) We've been watching honeybees swarm to our back yard every few years and living in random places on the property. We let them be thinking they'd go to the bee boxes at the end of our road (knowing zero about honeybees). Apparently it's common to just allow bees to swarm here (and they swarm to my backyard of lilacs and roses). Knowing it's not criminal theft, I bought a hive box set for my yard to encourage the next swarm to stick around and we'll go from there. :-D
I'm in the same zone (probably) you live in. Northern reaches of NY near Canada. We have meat rabbits, chickens, plans to dig a natural pond for fish this year, get some sheep in about 5-10 years. 40 swampy acres with young apple/pear/plum/berry plantings, lots of wildlife and wild forestry and some meadow areas. DeMaree sounds too commercial.
Great! If a swarm lands in a tree or bush simply shake them into your box! An old comb or a few drops of lemon grass oil will encourage interest in the box.
Thanks Peter. Your content is always informative and well-delivered. Nice job. I'm a first-year Southern California keeper with two colonies and intend to try this method soon. Can you let us know what signals you to know it's time to take this action?
Certainly if a colony is preparing to Swarm but also as soon as the double deep brood chamber is full and honeyflow about to get going or any time after while the flow is on.
Hi Peter, fantastic video 👍 love what you do. Do have a question to ask, with the Demaree method,what happens when you shift the upper brood (uncapped) to the top of the hive, what do the workers bees do after the brood has hatched? Do they clean up the bee bread and pollen before they start filling with Honey? Kind regards Eric, I’m new to bee keeping 🙏
Some, perhaps most of the bee bread that goes up with the brood is used up in the process of rearing the larvae. That which is not gets covered with honey as long term stores.
I run all mediums with ~30 colonies. I' have 10 Snelgrove boards. I'm considering Demaree approach for the remaining 20 if I have enough empty drawn comb.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer Good point. As I said, I've done a lot of Snelgrove vertical splits. This will be similar but different. Running all mediums can make it challenging but I'm going to give it a whirl!
Great video and explanation, thank you. Question, why not just cut the queen cells and add another brood box? Or add the brood box before the queen cells are made?
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer...so it's a localized young bee density issue, not an overall laying space issue that causes swarming... Interesting, thanks!
In the last two examples there is literally 1 frame of capped brood. Leaving 19 frames to fill. Can you initially super without the honey box and place it once the bottom boxes fill?
Hi Peter , so when I move the two brood boxes up top with supers below them and a new brood box with a excluder and frame with the queen and some drawn and undrawn comb so leave it like that until the honey flow is over unless it get full of course, thanks!
If the 2 honey supers under your brood boxes get full do you pull them or just sdd another super. Where do you add the super, on top of brood boxes or on top of 2 supers separating the brood .
Fascinating stuff. What happens if you redesign your build so the entrance is in that honey super just above the queen box? The queen physically can't leave, and the foraging bees don't have to walk through the queen box and then climb through the queen excluder to get to the honey super. Am I missing something that would make this go horribly wrong?
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer I get that - I'm more thinking that the easier it is for the foragers to get to where they're depositing the nectar, the less time and energy they spend on that, and the more efficient they'll be. I've heard a lot of beekeepers refer to queen excluders as 'honey excluders' and it seems like letting the foragers enter at the level they need to get to would be better than entering at the bottom and crawling up.
Good morning! I love your videos, so informative and you explain them so well. I also love watching your hive inspection videos! I am beginning my second year in beekeeping, so far all 4 hives made it through winter. I still do not have (almost no) backup resources (drawn frames) when doing this method and placing the honey supers, do they need to be drawn out? Thank you again!
Hi Peter, great video! I see that you start with two deep brood boxes and separate them. When do you add back the second deep brood box? After the final harvest?
Hi Peter, awesome video again! Thank you! Just a quick question. Do you suggest to put the second entrance on the top box during Demaree method? I thought that may be the way to make those bees (in the top box) believe they don't have queen since they don't pass by the lower box to get out. What's your thought? Thank you.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer it was very helpful. I’m new to beekeeping and starting my first hive this spring. I was struggling with how to prevent a swarm and in true form the algorithm answered with your video. I’m definitely going to try this method and come back and let you know how it turnout. 🙏🏾
Possible negative: Huge hive population. What do i do for overwinter? Isnt this just a delay of the inevitable split, albeit with a big honey harvest. Would like to have heard you teach what to do after honey harvest to stabilize the colony long term
Very helpful. Thank you. As you describe, this will fill deep brood boxes with honey. I have avoided getting honey in brood chambers to avoid exposing honey to mite treatment chemicals and brood material. Any thoughts?
I've got dozens of medium frames full of capped and uncapped sugar syrup from fall feeding. When and how should i use them? How do i prevent the bees from moving thr syrup into honey supers? What's the best way to utilize frames of stored syrup? I don't use them over winter because i so single brood box with candy board for overwintering so medium frames don't work for winter feed.
I'm hoping to try Demaree method soon. But I have a question though, I saw on one of Randy Oliver's video, that one of the swarm triggers is the lack of young brood pheramone. So if I place all capped brood in the bottom box, even with a queen, would the remaining adult bees be triggered to produce a swarm cell as soon as the queen lays a patch of eggs? Is it also a second threat of swarm cells, when all the uncapped young brood is up top, without any queen pheramone? Thanks for the video.
They usually attempt to raise a queen upstairs so its important to remove those queen cells after 8-9 days. But the time there is no young brood pheromone in the upper chamber there is loads in the lower chamber.
Help me out here. If you are filling deeps with honey, it’s likely many/most of those frames would have been treated in the past with something like apiguard or other treatments, which I would assume would make those frames unusable for human consumption . The shallow/mediums would be fine since they have likely seen no treatments in the past, but the deeps likely brood boxes, which would have seen treatments. What am I missing?
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer Thanks for the reply. I can see using comb that’s been treated with OA, but OA usually is not the only treatment used throughout the yr since it’s best used during bloodless periods. Formic is organic but it’s not recommended to be used with honey supers on. Is there another treatment besides OA that is OK to have in the wax of honey supers meant for human consumption? Being a somewhat newby, I’ve often wondered about this because I’ve seen folks on other channels that use short or medium honey supers but will sometimes harvest “edible” honey from a brood chamber that’s been filled will honey. Thanks for your help.
Hello Peter - I am Roger, in Australia. I'm still a novice - 3rd season/2 Langstroth colonies. Being a novice, I was so keen last season to get some honey that I harvested full-depth brood frames packed with capped honey. I then discovered that the honey was very tainted - residues of brood etc made honey very dark with extra strong aromas (but definitely not fermented). My question is - using the Demaree method means harvesting from the top brood frames. I am worried about tainted honey again. Is this not an issue - why? Or do you watch for the top brood to finish emerging and then swap out the frames with fresh deep frames+foundation? If this is the case then the colony must draw out new comb on the foundation of these fresh frames - right? Thanks for doing this video for novices like me. R
Hi Roger, The brood frames themselves do not taint the honey much if at all unless you have used antibiotics or mite synthetic mite treatments. The honey made over a period of time comes from many species of flower each results in different colors, flavors of honey. It is likely that this is the main source of what you thought was tainting.
Can you get away with a single super between brood boxes instead of two supers and get the same results or is the separation between queen and brood not enough with only one????
Thank you for the video. Not to sound contrarian, but if the premise of moving away from “regular” arrangement is that you likely won’t be able to cut away all the potential queen cells (missing one and allowing a swarm) how is it different when you are still having to go in and cut away queen cells in the upper brood chamber(s)? I suppose you only have to do it once in this configuration rather than repeatedly, but the original premise is that you are likely to miss a cell when you are cutting them out, so it would seem to apply even in the Demaree configuration?
A valid point but in the first instance removing any queen cells you can go through it really well, shaking bees off to be sure, it is of course necassary to do this 7-9 days later to insure there are none left having been remade but the population density is much lower then and as they are emergency queen cells are a lot easier to spot.
I was told that you do not want to or your not allowed to sell honey that has been in a brewed frame you can keep it for yourself give it away or feed it back to the bees I don’t know if it’s federal or state or if that was just somebody filling that strong about it Do you know anything about it?
You should not do it if you use antibiotics or have recently used Synthetic miticides. Also best if you do not use old brood frames, but I know of no laws restricting this.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer I just wondered because the bees would be moving through the area with the queen during their comings and goings. But I guess it's the young nurse bees in the top brood boxes that never get down into the vicinity of the queen that are making the queen cells.
First off, I want to congratulate you on a great channel with very thoughtful content. Now for my question ... I'm going to be a first time beekepeer this season. I'm going to be starting with two hives around two nucs with locally overwintered queens. Would you recommend planning for an aggressively implementing the Demaree method for a first season beekeeper - or only as a last resort when confronted with swarm cells?
If you manage the space well in the first year (and depending upon how early you get your bees) you may avoid swarming. However, this is certainly an option to prevent swarming if they do try, and not hard to do even for a beginner.
Yes but the queen cells removed after a week or so after the demaree split are emergency queen cells , so not as good a say, swarm cells, but should work ok.
THanks, I see what you are saying. The beekeeper near me just lot 10 hives. He thinks someone is spraying poison. I am in the area. I guess I better take what is the best to work and not go bargain basement. Thank you for your reply. I love your channel, and as a new beekeeper, you are a wonderful source of knowledge. @@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer
This is soooooo much work and still doesn't guarantee no swarming. Why have a HUGE colony, instead of two colonies that produce half the honey each? What is the benefit?
seems like a lot of manipulation, and lifting heavy boxes up very high potentially. ive not hat much problem with using double deeps and making sure they have enough space to late. lots of commercial keepers do very well running just single brood boxes and not having to manage this much manipulation (mostly because they dont have the time or resources). when i find queen cells, i just take the cells and make a small nuc, not totally chopping down the parent hive population, but enough to stop the swarming urge.
Yes and some will be correct and helpful, some will be correct if circumstances were different and some will be total cr#p! ....and some will be plain mean and critical of the novice for being ill prepared. (those folks should keep their mouth shut!)
You need a camera and AI SYSTEM TO LASER OR ELECTROSTATICALLY destroy unwelcome hive visitors. Similar to the camera driven fly rappers. Or maybe a high pressure tiny soapy water jet.
Does anyone let the top brood box raise a queen? I would plan on positioning the inner cover slot down so she could leave for her mating flight. Then I would split the hive after the main honey flow. Would essentially take the most advantage of the high bee numbers during the flow.
We do this in South Florida our method is this: we put on the second deep, as soon as 5 frames are in the second deep we place an empty box any size on the pallet then the second deep with the 5 frames of brood bees and honey then an excluder 2 empty honey supers then tbe bottom deep on top. We don't have swarming issues here. hope that helps
The sketches were very helpful. Thanks.
Thanks!
Excellent video, Thank you! Your teaching style and sketches made understanding the Demaree method so clear. I’m going into my 5th year of beekeeping and don’t want more hives, I just want to be able to properly care for the ones I have now. You are a superb teacher! Thank you!!!!!!
You're very welcome!
Not sure why, I was subscribed for a couple years, just noticed I had to re-subscribe for some reason. I love your video content. Thanks
Peter… Great explanation. A caveat I suggest is to inform beekeepers watching this is to not base their rewards of a huge crop of honey on this method just because they perform it. Myself who lives in an area where nectar is not as prevalent as some other areas, would have a very hard time getting that much honey as you do in your area. So the Demeree is great for reducing swarming without lessening the hive size but the honey amount is dependent on one’s nectar amount.
Very good point!
Thank you for this great video! I’m a 3rd year keeper with 3 hives - that’s all I want to keep right now due to space and equipment. I run all 8 frame mediums so this should work well for me cause I can easily move boxes around as needed. I will probably still do one 5 frame nuc box just as an insurance but this should work well and give us lots of honey as well as keeping all the girls here. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge and your time!
Great to have that nuc!
Wow, very interesting video. Thank you for showing us the diagram. That was very helpful.
You are welcome!
Absolutely love your videos, i cant wait to do the Demaree method you have taught on is alot of your videos!! I am in North Central Kentucky and Red Maples have been in bloom about 2 weeks and bees are busy. Thank you so much!!
Amazing. Liked the way you presented demaree method. This will be my go to video for learning it. Much appreciated
Awesome, thank you!
Thanks for great video Peter.
New to all of this and just starting third year so this technique will be extremely useful.
Getting great numbers of bees in early spring due to insulated hives plus use condensing method. Have also eradicated robber problem completely, year round which stops disease spreading from entry by bees, wasps, hornets and moths. Especially important in spring when pollen is low and stores scarce, so bees prone to robbing hives with dead colonies which may be diseased and end up with fatal consequences for strong colony. Makes for stress free colonies too, often a bigger problem than considered.
Thank you very much for the detailed description. I have a question: what do you do if the lower floor was treated against diseases in the winter... how do you bring it up with a demaree manipulation? Also, during the winter we fed the base layer with sugar water and now in the manipulation all the remaining sugar will rise to the honey layer, is this something you took into account? Thank you for your attention.
Great video. Best video in showing how the Demaree method can work different for every beekeepers taste. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
So nice of you
Thank you for your video! So easy to understand! I lost both of my hives over winter on my first year 😢 have to start all over again this year but I struggled hard with swarming last year (caught my swarm twice and saved them), but this would help so much!
Hi there.
Hope you have got Bees now.
If not "You have the perfect Equipment to lure IN a Swarm !
What's not to like about receiving "Free Bees !"
Method :
Any Hive that has or had Natural Drawn Honey Comb (either fully built out Foundation, or Bee own made Comb) will have the 'attracting' Smell of Bees 'Lived Here' !
A Beekeeper can also add a 'Dot' of Lemon Grass Oil* (Essential Oil from a Pharmacy or Health Store.) It's Strong stuff, so a tiny Splash (dot) on a piece of Cardboard will 'emit'* Faux Queen Phremone in here. : Welcome to this awaiting Home ! 🤞
If you know you might be busy, on on Holiday (Vacation) when in 'Swarm Season : UK late April through to August, in Scotland 🏴 more like May to late July (cooler up here 🤭)
A Hive or Nuc Box with Frames of some fully Drawn Comb, and some Foundation too : will get Drawn out Fast ! (Swarms build Wax to the Max.)
An empty Box ready to 'move in' will call In your own near by Hive Swarm (that you might not be there to deal with.) And maybe any Swarm in the local District, whose Hive owner may be on a Holiday or busy in there Office. . . Doh !
Let that LGO lure in that 'near departing Swarm'. Better to be caught than up in someone's Chimney. Roof Space or within a partition Wall. . . 😖
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2024
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Hope this helps you in this the start of "Swarm Season". 😎
I had x3 caught Swarms last Year. x2 from my own Hives (they found my spare empty Brood Boxes.) Colony made Queens are far superior to one's made via Grafting. (Just my experience of Black Bees (A.M.M) Yes, review their status regularly. But let 'them' make new 'Queen Cells' under careful Management. But NOT lose them in the 'missed'
Swarming process. 👀
And I also caught a Swarm at a Friend's place: (more Stripey Bees A.M.M Buckfast-esq)
in their Garden, in a Town x6 Miles away. . . Using a Poly Nuc. (It didn't stress out a local eg School, by flying into their Playground). . .did it. 🙃
This out of Town Nuc Hive was Sold on : to make £$'s to Buy more Bee Equipment. Nice.
(Wanted to keep my Drone population more Black Bee over Buckfast.) Just my way of keeping my Bees in my locality. 👍
I used the demaree method last year and got 100 lbs . This year I will do the same but lost one hive this winter so I will save a frame with a single capped queen cell to start a replacement hive. Being 73 full deeps are a bear to move so I built a platform and a young neighbor to help. I have had my original hive for 4 years. Thanks for you advice. I’m in central New Jersey .
You can consider going to all mediums and apply the same principals. Still a lot of lifting! Time to take on a mentee!
Thank you for your time. Very helpful with ideas on what works and don't Thank you
You are so welcome!
You came out of left field, but welcome to my subscription list. Thanks for the great content.
Haha a welcome addition I hope! TH-cam found this to be very popular and suddenly showed it to a lot of new folks.
Different people learn different ways, and I love and learn a lot from the way that you teach thanks keep them coming please 🙏🏻
Thank you! Will do!
This video was good. I understand it now. It puts a bottleneck on population production but keeps the existing workforce to continue making honey.
A bottleneck could be avoided with a second manipulation.
Thank You, Peter. At the end of my beekeeping life, I think I should try this method. I keep only two hives now, so, there should be time enough to play with them. No swarming too. Perfect tutorial and a great video. Greetings. Adam. Bye.
Beekeepers live longer lives, plenty of time to reep the rewards! ;)
I did this method past year and I collected 50kg per hive. In addition I put all the queen cells in a special boxes and I had 17 new queens in just one bee hive.
Is this how new queens are raised?
@@ScottMcMillan4670 there are several methods, this is one of them. By instal a queen excluder and leaving open brood frames in the super
As always great advice Peter
Thanks 👍
Thank you for the the video and the detailed explanation. It would be way too time consuming in my opinion for anyone over 5 hives. The weight of the top box could become like 80 pounds at 6 feet high. However, my largest concern would be mite treatment with that large of a population and that many boxes. I would just make a split and get less honey. But thats a great thing about beekeeping, there are many ways to do things.
Valid things to consider.
Tip :
If a "Box" is to Heavy !? Why not have a 'Spare' on a Roof at Ground Level and MOVE the "Frames" instead ! That way you can do any up 'high' non lifting and still achieve your Goal. 👍
Hope this Helps. 😎
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2024
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Or maybe : Change your Hive 'Style' eg for Examples : Use : Horizontal Hive, Try x4 Stacked Nuc Hives : Two Towers: side by side Sharing the Roof and being Queened by x1 Queen in a Standard Brood Box/Under a QE works !
Or try a French Warre Hive or DIY version : Made to suit. . . See Sam Comfort Hive (examples here on TH-cam) : No Heavy Lifting of these !
Get the Idea. . . Think outside the "Box" ! 😁
I can't Lift Heavy Boxes yet I have a H.H using Jumbo Deep Langstroth Frames. X2 Regular Lang Hives : Where I 'move' all Frames into an 'empty box' then reverse all. OK more Work / but my Back doesn't suffer !
Also have several Warre Hives and plenty of spare 'stacked' Nucs (these are my Newer Colonies / overwinter with Young Queens to) which get upgraded to Full Colony status in the Second Year. All means : No Swarming ! Have Young Queens. Any older one gets 'moved on' as a Sold Nuc ! Or gets 'Mashed' and added to my Queen 'Swarm Lure' Potion. 😉
There is a need to make splits every year for replacements as some colonies may not make it through the season or winter.
I usually get 2 to 3 deep 10 frame boxes of honey per colony without doing so much work like you do.
If a 10 frame deep box of super is to heavy , then I just remove some frames and put them into a spare box when I do inspections.
All of my boxes are deep 10 frames and frames are easy to interchange.
Do not do mite treatment with honey supers on.
This seem like alot of work but I do like hearing about alternatives of hive manipulation to control swarming. Good video!
It is a lot.
All swarm control is work.
I have been watching your videos , thank you !
Glad you like them!
I haven’t tried this yet but it looks like i should with at lest some of the hives. Didnt get a very good crop last year with the drought in central iowa. Need to fill the pails again. Thanks for the info !
Good luck!
Thanks for video. Method actually good if you have 10-15 hives, but its litle complicated and time-consuming if you have more hives.
Could not agree more!!!! But great way for hobbiest to increase honey and avoid loosing swarms.
Great explanation. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks Peter. Do you recommend an second entrance at the top brood box or just the bottom entrance?
Thank you so much for your video, am learning
Excellent video.
Thank you very much!
Yes this something I have to think about and quick I got a few hives not many but enough for me and they are busting out side the hives in big clusters as it is summer here to and hot but lots and lots of bees and full boxes of honey to take off , I got some work cut out for me and possibly lots of stings lol.
If the honey flow is about to end wait till next season.
Small homesteader and hoping to start a more natural approach I don't think we would go through hundreds of lbs of honey in a year. No plans to sell, not many friends/family to gift to. :-) I'd probably start another box or two in case of one failing. :-) We've been watching honeybees swarm to our back yard every few years and living in random places on the property. We let them be thinking they'd go to the bee boxes at the end of our road (knowing zero about honeybees). Apparently it's common to just allow bees to swarm here (and they swarm to my backyard of lilacs and roses). Knowing it's not criminal theft, I bought a hive box set for my yard to encourage the next swarm to stick around and we'll go from there. :-D
I'm in the same zone (probably) you live in. Northern reaches of NY near Canada. We have meat rabbits, chickens, plans to dig a natural pond for fish this year, get some sheep in about 5-10 years. 40 swampy acres with young apple/pear/plum/berry plantings, lots of wildlife and wild forestry and some meadow areas. DeMaree sounds too commercial.
Great! If a swarm lands in a tree or bush simply shake them into your box! An old comb or a few drops of lemon grass oil will encourage interest in the box.
Thank you for the great informations
Any time!
Thanks Peter. Your content is always informative and well-delivered. Nice job. I'm a first-year Southern California keeper with two colonies and intend to try this method soon. Can you let us know what signals you to know it's time to take this action?
Certainly if a colony is preparing to Swarm but also as soon as the double deep brood chamber is full and honeyflow about to get going or any time after while the flow is on.
Hi Peter, fantastic video 👍 love what you do. Do have a question to ask, with the Demaree method,what happens when you shift the upper brood (uncapped) to the top of the hive, what do the workers bees do after the brood has hatched? Do they clean up the bee bread and pollen before they start filling with Honey?
Kind regards Eric, I’m new to bee keeping 🙏
Some, perhaps most of the bee bread that goes up with the brood is used up in the process of rearing the larvae. That which is not gets covered with honey as long term stores.
I run all mediums with ~30 colonies. I' have 10 Snelgrove boards. I'm considering Demaree approach for the remaining 20 if I have enough empty drawn comb.
It is a great way to get more comb drawn out in the new lower chamber.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer Good point. As I said, I've done a lot of Snelgrove vertical splits. This will be similar but different. Running all mediums can make it challenging but I'm going to give it a whirl!
Great video and explanation, thank you. Question, why not just cut the queen cells and add another brood box? Or add the brood box before the queen cells are made?
Because that does not separate queen from brood (and hence the nurse bees)
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer...so it's a localized young bee density issue, not an overall laying space issue that causes swarming... Interesting, thanks!
In the last two examples there is literally 1 frame of capped brood. Leaving 19 frames to fill. Can you initially super without the honey box and place it once the bottom boxes fill?
Do I also need to periodically check the bottom brood box (where the Queen is ) for swarm cells or supercedure cells? ... if so how often. Many thx.
If there is a good honeyflow not often if its stop start every 10 days is sensible.
Hi Peter , so when I move the two brood boxes up top with supers below them and a new brood box with a excluder and frame with the queen and some drawn and undrawn comb so leave it like that until the honey flow is over unless it get full of course, thanks!
yes
Dude I replied 3 months ago😮
Sorry 6 months ago😮
With the possibility of that many boxes above the Q EX, would you rcommend a shim with a bee escape just under the top cover?
By bee escape I assume you mean an upper entrance, if so yes.
Hi thank you for the info I’m new to bee keeping and I wander if that’s possible to do in Southern California Los Angeles area
I don't see why not. Timings will be local honeyflow related but principals are the same.
If the 2 honey supers under your brood boxes get full do you pull them or just sdd another super. Where do you add the super, on top of brood boxes or on top of 2 supers separating the brood .
Whatever suits the beekeeper. I have done both. New supers usually on top.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer thank you, I used your system this year and pulled 545 lbs of honey from 6 colonies
Fascinating stuff.
What happens if you redesign your build so the entrance is in that honey super just above the queen box? The queen physically can't leave, and the foraging bees don't have to walk through the queen box and then climb through the queen excluder to get to the honey super. Am I missing something that would make this go horribly wrong?
Its not the foragers causing the crouding it is the nurse bees I believe.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer I get that - I'm more thinking that the easier it is for the foragers to get to where they're depositing the nectar, the less time and energy they spend on that, and the more efficient they'll be. I've heard a lot of beekeepers refer to queen excluders as 'honey excluders' and it seems like letting the foragers enter at the level they need to get to would be better than entering at the bottom and crawling up.
Thanks for your breakdown. Do you suggest an upper entrance to help manage the crowding at the entrance when you have all those foragers?
Does not matter, you can but I typically dont ad one , just the notch in an inner cover usually.
Good morning! I love your videos, so informative and you explain them so well. I also love watching your hive inspection videos! I am beginning my second year in beekeeping, so far all 4 hives made it through winter. I still do not have (almost no) backup resources (drawn frames) when doing this method and placing the honey supers, do they need to be drawn out? Thank you again!
No they don't, infact it is a great way to get a lot of extra deep combs drawn down in that deep box with the queen.
thank you so much!@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer
BTW great video. Learning a lot
Would it be beneficial to put an entrance in the top brood box on Demaree hive?
It does not hurt and the drones appreciate it.
Hi Peter, great video! I see that you start with two deep brood boxes and separate them. When do you add back the second deep brood box? After the final harvest?
Sometimes I will in August. Otherwise it is early the next spring
Hi Peter, awesome video again! Thank you! Just a quick question. Do you suggest to put the second entrance on the top box during Demaree method? I thought that may be the way to make those bees (in the top box) believe they don't have queen since they don't pass by the lower box to get out. What's your thought? Thank you.
Either way they will act the same I believe its a distance matter
This is a great video! Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer it was very helpful. I’m new to beekeeping and starting my first hive this spring. I was struggling with how to prevent a swarm and in true form the algorithm answered with your video. I’m definitely going to try this method and come back and let you know how it turnout. 🙏🏾
Possible negative: Huge hive population. What do i do for overwinter? Isnt this just a delay of the inevitable split, albeit with a big honey harvest. Would like to have heard you teach what to do after honey harvest to stabilize the colony long term
I go back to a double deep after honey harvest. That is about July first in central IL.
Doing a video on that topic soon.
Very helpful. Thank you. As you describe, this will fill deep brood boxes with honey. I have avoided getting honey in brood chambers to avoid exposing honey to mite treatment chemicals and brood material. Any thoughts?
That is one reason I only use organic treatments for mites so as not to have residues in frames I may possibly extract at some point.
I've got dozens of medium frames full of capped and uncapped sugar syrup from fall feeding. When and how should i use them? How do i prevent the bees from moving thr syrup into honey supers? What's the best way to utilize frames of stored syrup? I don't use them over winter because i so single brood box with candy board for overwintering so medium frames don't work for winter feed.
Feed it to them in early spring, either extracted in feeder or (where appropriate open feed.
I'm hoping to try Demaree method soon. But I have a question though, I saw on one of Randy Oliver's video, that one of the swarm triggers is the lack of young brood pheramone. So if I place all capped brood in the bottom box, even with a queen, would the remaining adult bees be triggered to produce a swarm cell as soon as the queen lays a patch of eggs? Is it also a second threat of swarm cells, when all the uncapped young brood is up top, without any queen pheramone? Thanks for the video.
They usually attempt to raise a queen upstairs so its important to remove those queen cells after 8-9 days. But the time there is no young brood pheromone in the upper chamber there is loads in the lower chamber.
Help me out here. If you are filling deeps with honey, it’s likely many/most of those frames would have been treated in the past with something like apiguard or other treatments, which I would assume would make those frames unusable for human consumption . The shallow/mediums would be fine since they have likely seen no treatments in the past, but the deeps likely brood boxes, which would have seen treatments. What am I missing?
That is why (well one good reason why) I only use organic treatments which specifically do not leave residues.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer Thanks for the reply. I can see using comb that’s been treated with OA, but OA usually is not the only treatment used throughout the yr since it’s best used during bloodless periods. Formic is organic but it’s not recommended to be used with honey supers on. Is there another treatment besides OA that is OK to have in the wax of honey supers meant for human consumption? Being a somewhat newby, I’ve often wondered about this because I’ve seen folks on other channels that use short or medium honey supers but will sometimes harvest “edible” honey from a brood chamber that’s been filled will honey. Thanks for your help.
Hello Peter - I am Roger, in Australia. I'm still a novice - 3rd season/2 Langstroth colonies. Being a novice, I was so keen last season to get some honey that I harvested full-depth brood frames packed with capped honey. I then discovered that the honey was very tainted - residues of brood etc made honey very dark with extra strong aromas (but definitely not fermented).
My question is - using the Demaree method means harvesting from the top brood frames. I am worried about tainted honey again. Is this not an issue - why? Or do you watch for the top brood to finish emerging and then swap out the frames with fresh deep frames+foundation? If this is the case then the colony must draw out new comb on the foundation of these fresh frames - right?
Thanks for doing this video for novices like me. R
Hi Roger, The brood frames themselves do not taint the honey much if at all unless you have used antibiotics or mite synthetic mite treatments. The honey made over a period of time comes from many species of flower each results in different colors, flavors of honey. It is likely that this is the main source of what you thought was tainting.
Can you get away with a single super between brood boxes instead of two supers and get the same results or is the separation between queen and brood not enough with only one????
Certainly, how much space you give depends on how strong the colony is at the time.
2 mediums or 1 deep will work
Thank you for the video. Not to sound contrarian, but if the premise of moving away from “regular” arrangement is that you likely won’t be able to cut away all the potential queen cells (missing one and allowing a swarm) how is it different when you are still having to go in and cut away queen cells in the upper brood chamber(s)? I suppose you only have to do it once in this configuration rather than repeatedly, but the original premise is that you are likely to miss a cell when you are cutting them out, so it would seem to apply even in the Demaree configuration?
A valid point but in the first instance removing any queen cells you can go through it really well, shaking bees off to be sure, it is of course necassary to do this 7-9 days later to insure there are none left having been remade but the population density is much lower then and as they are emergency queen cells are a lot easier to spot.
So what do you do the following year ?
Build up from singles usually.
Would you put an upper entrance anywhere?
Would not hurt.
Is this method possible for cerana bees species in Nepal
I have no idea! But would love to see a video of it!
Can this be done with a new hive (not over wintered). Do you have to have swarm cells?
It will work on any hive that has a population of bees about to get overcrouded and there is still honeyflow to come.
I was told that you do not want to or your not allowed to sell honey that has been in a brewed frame you can keep it for yourself give it away or feed it back to the bees I don’t know if it’s federal or state or if that was just somebody filling that strong about it
Do you know anything about it?
You should not do it if you use antibiotics or have recently used Synthetic miticides. Also best if you do not use old brood frames, but I know of no laws restricting this.
Are there upper entrances on the demaree splits?
Usually but not essential
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer Thank you!
Will you do this at the beginning of the nectar flow?
Yes as long as the colony is big enough.
Sehr Interessant 👍👍👍
Peter, What’s the best time of the year to perform this method? I live in central Alabama. Great video! Thanks!
When the brood chamber is full and close to wanting to swarm. Timing will vary with location and strength.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer Thanks Peter!
Wouldn't the drones get stuck up in the top?
Drones can get in and out of inner cover but sometimes they could be lost.
Great video!
Thanks!
What do you think about horizontal hives?
Easy to work but not ideal re standard mite treatments and overwintering in the north its not an optimal design.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer thanks.
Is there just a single entrance at the bottom? Or is there an upper entrance for the field bees to use?
Either will work but I would start with just the bottom entrance.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer I just wondered because the bees would be moving through the area with the queen during their comings and goings. But I guess it's the young nurse bees in the top brood boxes that never get down into the vicinity of the queen that are making the queen cells.
I work with all medium 8 frame boxes, so I am not sure how this would work. I'll need to think about it.
Just the same but you need more boxes to give equivalent numbers /area of comb
when do you or do you ever reverse the boxes back to the standard order?
After the main flows you can....or overwinter as singles.
First off, I want to congratulate you on a great channel with very thoughtful content. Now for my question ...
I'm going to be a first time beekepeer this season. I'm going to be starting with two hives around two nucs with locally overwintered queens. Would you recommend planning for an aggressively implementing the Demaree method for a first season beekeeper - or only as a last resort when confronted with swarm cells?
If you manage the space well in the first year (and depending upon how early you get your bees) you may avoid swarming. However, this is certainly an option to prevent swarming if they do try, and not hard to do even for a beginner.
Unfortunately when we find queen cells it’s already too late for that family . It’s a close case for the year.
I beg to differ....can stop the swarm.
Mr. Peter, i am a hobbiest of beekeeping. Thanks alot very informative videos but, i was curious if that method is applicable to the tropical country?
I think it all depends upon your honeyflows.
First, let me say that I'm cheap, lol. Can the queen cells you remove be saved to sell later?
Yes but the queen cells removed after a week or so after the demaree split are emergency queen cells , so not as good a say, swarm cells, but should work ok.
THanks, I see what you are saying. The beekeeper near me just lot 10 hives. He thinks someone is spraying poison. I am in the area. I guess I better take what is the best to work and not go bargain basement. Thank you for your reply. I love your channel, and as a new beekeeper, you are a wonderful source of knowledge.
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer
Seems like a lot of extra Labor ?
It is a LOT of labor but does pay in honey....depends upon what you want!
Very interesting thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
How much of the honey do I leave for the bees?
Leave the brood chamber 80% full of honey/or sugar syrup for winter usually.
Add two more honey supers on top
Once you have queen cells even if you remove them all and add two supers that is not enough to stop a swarm in my experience . This will.
This is soooooo much work and still doesn't guarantee no swarming. Why have a HUGE colony, instead of two colonies that produce half the honey each? What is the benefit?
It is a lot of work but works very well.
Must be great in a top bar
seems like a lot of manipulation, and lifting heavy boxes up very high potentially. ive not hat much problem with using double deeps and making sure they have enough space to late. lots of commercial keepers do very well running just single brood boxes and not having to manage this much manipulation (mostly because they dont have the time or resources). when i find queen cells, i just take the cells and make a small nuc, not totally chopping down the parent hive population, but enough to stop the swarming urge.
Perfectly valid options....and what I do with many of my hives....but the Demaree manipulations certainly make me a lot more honey.
can you do this in a long hive
Not as effectively but the principals can be applied horizontally with some effect I would say.
From Canada 🇨🇦
Ask 10 beekeepers a question and you will get 11 answers!
Yes and some will be correct and helpful, some will be correct if circumstances were different and some will be total cr#p! ....and some will be plain mean and critical of the novice for being ill prepared. (those folks should keep their mouth shut!)
Is this like the Rythm method ?
LOL
This is a proven method, but it does not work well down south where the bees come out of winter very strong.
Pozdrawiam serdecznie i życzę miłego dnia
Can you do demaree with single deep brood? Or 1 deep brood and 1 medium?
Yes you can. Box size does not matter but you may need to repete the procedure to avoid swarming.
WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THIS BUT MAGIC MARKERS ARE LIKE FINGER NAILS ON A CHALK BOARD, MAKES ME SHIVER
Another Negative is cleaning up the Dead Drones
Your camera isnt focused on your drawings.
Bore off! The video with drawings is fantastic!
All these methods are insanely labor intensive and require too much equipment..
No bones about it yes. This is to make lots of honey and a LOT of work if you have many hives!
Feed them when you do this it will help
I dont want to feed with honey supers on (or brood chambers that I want to remove honey from.)
You need a camera and AI SYSTEM TO LASER OR ELECTROSTATICALLY destroy unwelcome hive visitors. Similar to the camera driven fly rappers. Or maybe a high pressure tiny soapy water jet.
My tropical bees will kill me if dare 😅😅
Yes it pays to have gentil bees when doing this!
Does anyone let the top brood box raise a queen? I would plan on positioning the inner cover slot down so she could leave for her mating flight. Then I would split the hive after the main honey flow. Would essentially take the most advantage of the high bee numbers during the flow.
Yes but that is seeking a different outcome....brood not honey. It depends upon what you want.
Too much lifting
Yes! Upper body work out for sure!
What's your opinion on the "flow hive"?@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer