Great video Laurence. Really appreciate seeing how you do a Demarree, along with your interpretation of impact to hive, queen and risks. As you point out, there’s no guarantee with bee keeping. It’s the added details ( in the upcoming video) that I think will help all your subscribers be more successful with this approach of controlling swarming, avoiding splits and good Honey production. Looking forward to it…will definitely be a useful tool in the tool box!!!Regards Tony Van Oostrom, WillowBee Apiary.
Loving the videos. I will be getting my first ever nucleus in June. I’ve read books cover to cover and taken several on-line corses but your videos are as close as I can get on hands on until April when I will be visiting my local Association Apiary. Can’t wait to get started.
Thanks for the video Lawrence - presumably if running double brood, you just add a third brood box at the bottom and move the 2 current broods to the top? - Running out of equipment here, even at 300m in Radnorshire! Had a really strong late hawthorn flow here, and the bees also seem to be cramming pollen everywhere, blocking up the brood boxes!
Thanks Laurence, clear and precise as usual, great stuff. Were you tempted though to quickly check the frames at the top just to make sure there were no obvious queen cells. Best wishes. Peter
Hi Peter. Yes definitely. I didn't show it in the video but checked all frames in all boxes first before committing to the demaree. One misplaced cell and they will swarm
I read the techniques in books and they seem so difficult to follow. When you see it done, they are generally very simple. Yes. I'll do a video on swapping out frames :)
My local association did a talk on swarm prevention and pointed out from Demaree's original description was as you have it a pre-swsrm manipulation and so not as effective if QC's are found
Tried this last year. As you say queen on fresh foundation built up quickly. Brood in top box threw up lots of emergency cells. Once the cycle of brood was over inc drones put it back together and they started throwing swarm cells almost immediately so I removed the queen. Will look out for your longer video to see where I went wrong or if it was just the bees !
@@BlackMountainHoney I know, removed queen and let them requeen which went well. On to double brood as well but it’s a line of swarmy bees. ‘Mother’ was a first year swarm I caught, she swarmed the following year, caught and re hived. So as you said last night genetics and whilst local bees are good no one locally raises queens that I know so you have to go further afield.
Thanks for video Laurence. I've never really understood why people did this manipulation at all, thanks for clarifying. Few questions, how early and how late in this season can this be performed? And with the 2 queen excluders what happens to the drones in the top brood ? And after the top has all emerged will they not use the top brood as a super?
You can do it early in the season as long as there is enough bees to fill all the boxes. Drones get stuck unfortunately but you can clear them out when you inspect. Yes top box turns into a super, that's the reason for doing it. They jam pack it full of honey. You can repeat once the top box is all honey and bottom box is all brood.
Slightly off topic, but can you use this same type of method to do a split of a hive and add an upper entrance for the upper brood box? That way they are both sharing resources from the middle and able to regulate temps easier (if in colder climate), then when a new queen is hatched and mated, remove the upper brood box with new queen to a new location?
Hi Laurence, just a quick one for you as I’m planning to do this method. If my braid box is packed with bees but they haven’t drawn out the honey super above the queen excluder..can I still do a preemptive Demaree or should I wait??
If there is drone brood in the original brood box above the second queen excluder, they can not exit because of the queen excluder. How do you deal with that?
You can add an upper entrance and requeen and then the drones can escape or you can remove them on regular inspections. I find a few get stuck but never loads
We run this system to requeen colonies from the top box so it's to keep the colonies seperate. It's also a safety net for if you miss a cell so the virgin can't get out of the hive and take half the bees with it
Hey there Laurence, our Bees swarmed on Sunday(yesterday) we could not get them back. On our inspection last week all was in order apart from the bees needing a bit more space. When they swarmed We looked in the brood box and found some queen cells. We knocked back all but two to hope they get a new queen. there are some bees still in the hive and they look like they are functioning. Could you offer any other advice? Thanks In advance.
Hi Edward. You have done everything that I would have done. Some knock down to one but two capped cells is fine. Hopefully the remaining queen will get mated.,
I have two hives which are fairly honeybound in their brood boxes. I've given them empty foundation and removed deep frames of honey to allow some space. One thing I have wondered, is there a way to get bees to empty their brood frames and potentially store it in their supers? Could I use a comb scratcher to break the capping so they remove it? Thanks
Why would you not just put it below the supers and above the Queen excluder? That way the nurse bees can still smell the queen's pheromone and don't make emergency queen cells.... Sorry if that is a stupid question
Ive learned more from you in a few hours. Then ive learned for months with others. You speak so well, informative and complete! Bravo 👏 Thank you!
Thanks. Very kind of you 😀
Great video Laurence. Really appreciate seeing how you do a Demarree, along with your interpretation of impact to hive, queen and risks. As you point out, there’s no guarantee with bee keeping. It’s the added details ( in the upcoming video) that I think will help all your subscribers be more successful with this approach of controlling swarming, avoiding splits and good Honey production. Looking forward to it…will definitely be a useful tool in the tool box!!!Regards Tony Van Oostrom, WillowBee Apiary.
Loving the videos. I will be getting my first ever nucleus in June. I’ve read books cover to cover and taken several on-line corses but your videos are as close as I can get on hands on until April when I will be visiting my local Association Apiary.
Can’t wait to get started.
Great to hear they have been useful Tony
Seems like great idea, thanks Laurence for this extra bit of knowledge to use as and when. These videos are really helpful! 👍
That's very nicely explained. Thanks.
Just tried my 1st demaree thanks to your vid. Will be looking out for the follow on to this vid.
Thanks for the video again. 👍🏽
Hey. Hope it went well. I am a few weeks away from finishing it as it shows a time lapse over around 7 weeks. It will be a good video though ;)
Thanks for the video Lawrence - presumably if running double brood, you just add a third brood box at the bottom and move the 2 current broods to the top? - Running out of equipment here, even at 300m in Radnorshire! Had a really strong late hawthorn flow here, and the bees also seem to be cramming pollen everywhere, blocking up the brood boxes!
That's right. Keep an eye on the channel. I have a video on this coming out soon 😀
Hi Laurence. I may have missed it but could you share the link to the more detailed video that you refer to please?
Thanks for the information!
great work....
Thanks Laurence, clear and precise as usual, great stuff. Were you tempted though to quickly check the frames at the top just to make sure there were no obvious queen cells. Best wishes. Peter
Hi Peter. Yes definitely. I didn't show it in the video but checked all frames in all boxes first before committing to the demaree. One misplaced cell and they will swarm
Seems so much simpler than I thought. I’ll be trying this soon. Any advice on when and how to change out old frames on a future video?
I read the techniques in books and they seem so difficult to follow. When you see it done, they are generally very simple.
Yes. I'll do a video on swapping out frames :)
My local association did a talk on swarm prevention and pointed out from Demaree's original description was as you have it a pre-swsrm manipulation and so not as effective if QC's are found
Yes. There are loads of different versions knocking around. This is the one I tend to use
Tried this last year. As you say queen on fresh foundation built up quickly. Brood in top box threw up lots of emergency cells. Once the cycle of brood was over inc drones put it back together and they started throwing swarm cells almost immediately so I removed the queen. Will look out for your longer video to see where I went wrong or if it was just the bees !
Its no guarantee to stop swarming. Sometimes they just want to go! 😞
@@BlackMountainHoney I know, removed queen and let them requeen which went well. On to double brood as well but it’s a line of swarmy bees. ‘Mother’ was a first year swarm I caught, she swarmed the following year, caught and re hived. So as you said last night genetics and whilst local bees are good no one locally raises queens that I know so you have to go further afield.
Thanks for video Laurence. I've never really understood why people did this manipulation at all, thanks for clarifying. Few questions, how early and how late in this season can this be performed? And with the 2 queen excluders what happens to the drones in the top brood ? And after the top has all emerged will they not use the top brood as a super?
You can do it early in the season as long as there is enough bees to fill all the boxes. Drones get stuck unfortunately but you can clear them out when you inspect. Yes top box turns into a super, that's the reason for doing it. They jam pack it full of honey. You can repeat once the top box is all honey and bottom box is all brood.
Great explanation!
How would it work, if for any reason you didn't want the old brood box to be used for honey stores?
Replace it as soon as the brood have emerged with a super
Slightly off topic, but can you use this same type of method to do a split of a hive and add an upper entrance for the upper brood box? That way they are both sharing resources from the middle and able to regulate temps easier (if in colder climate), then when a new queen is hatched and mated, remove the upper brood box with new queen to a new location?
Yes. We do that on a lot of colonies and it's a great way to requeen because if the upstairs queen fails, then you have an easy back up
still not sure why the 2nd top queen excluder is needed. ?
Hi Laurence, just a quick one for you as I’m planning to do this method. If my braid box is packed with bees but they haven’t drawn out the honey super above the queen excluder..can I still do a preemptive Demaree or should I wait??
If there is drone brood in the original brood box above the second queen excluder, they can not exit because of the queen excluder. How do you deal with that?
You can add an upper entrance and requeen and then the drones can escape or you can remove them on regular inspections. I find a few get stuck but never loads
It’s worth adding an upper entrance so the drones that emerge in the top box don’t get stuck.
Yes. You will always get a few stuck regardless of a top entrance but we use them for requeening on the top box. It's a neat system
Silly question why have you put a second queen excluder on?
I was wondering what purpose the upper QE served also
We run this system to requeen colonies from the top box so it's to keep the colonies seperate. It's also a safety net for if you miss a cell so the virgin can't get out of the hive and take half the bees with it
Hey there Laurence, our Bees swarmed on Sunday(yesterday) we could not get them back. On our inspection last week all was in order apart from the bees needing a bit more space. When they swarmed We looked in the brood box and found some queen cells. We knocked back all but two to hope they get a new queen. there are some bees still in the hive and they look like they are functioning. Could you offer any other advice? Thanks In advance.
Hi Edward. You have done everything that I would have done. Some knock down to one but two capped cells is fine. Hopefully the remaining queen will get mated.,
Many thanks Laurence.
What is the idea of the second queen excluder below the top brood box?
If you miss a qc, the queen cannot get into the supers below
I have two hives which are fairly honeybound in their brood boxes. I've given them empty foundation and removed deep frames of honey to allow some space. One thing I have wondered, is there a way to get bees to empty their brood frames and potentially store it in their supers? Could I use a comb scratcher to break the capping so they remove it? Thanks
Yes - exactly that Adam. Bruise the stores with a hive tool and then add space above. They will move it all up and out of the way of the brood area
@@BlackMountainHoney Thanks, sorry you've had to respond to this question twice across two videos, I forgot I had asked it already!
Why would you not just put it below the supers and above the Queen excluder? That way the nurse bees can still smell the queen's pheromone and don't make emergency queen cells.... Sorry if that is a stupid question
Never a stupid question. If you do that, it doesn't turbo charge the queen and she won't expand the nest in the lower brood box at the same rate
@@BlackMountainHoney OK, thanks for the reply and keep the videos coming 👍🍯💪