Did I demaree my doublebrood correctly?

[Obee1]

So I bit the bullet and demaree'd. My first time.
The queen is 2014 Bucky. There were 14 frames with varying amounts of brood through the two boxes and they had filled a super completely with nectar in a week but not yet capped it.
I condensed the two Bb into one at the top.
So the set up is now
Floor
Brood box (poly) with 1 brood frame plus queen. Drawn combs and 2 food frames
QE
Three supers. Bottom one is full of nectar. Rest are 50/50 drawn and foundation
QE
Broodbox with 11 brood frames some of which are quite pollen laden and some have honey arches.
Crownboard
Poly bonnet which only covers top 2 boxes (only the bottom bb is poly)

I stole two brood frames and one food to make a nuc for a queen coming tomorrow and removed lots of spare food frames.

So - my worry. Is there too much brood in the top. Should I have added another box up top to mingle more food in up there? I can't physically lift a heavy box that high but could get help on the weekend.
Is it ok to leave the two food frames down in the foragers box? I only did so due to no space up top.
Should the full super be the top super - nearer the brood?

Let the critiques begin....

 

[Finman]

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Fullest nectar box should be topmost.
Put Foundations nearest to brood. Bees think that they are enlargening their hive and they have not much honey for swarming.

Your hive seems to be good. No panic with swarming or demareering.

 

[Finman]

.
To me that demareering seems to be real catastrophe.
Weathers in UK are cold and you devide the brood area that way.

And what ever happends and what ever weather, I would not split the brood space when I try to build up the hive to full strength.

Foundations should be enough to prevent swarming.

And if queen cells appears, then do a AS. Nothing preventive panicing is needed..

Probably bees feel themselves queenless in topmost brood box and they start to do queen cells.
.

 

[Obee1]

.
Fullest nectar box should be topmost.
Put Foundations nearest to brood. Bees think that they are enlargening their hive and they have not much honey for swarming.

Your hive seems to be good. No panic with swarming or demareering.

Thanks finny. - I will move that full super up above the other two. Should I not have put food frames at bottom? Without those two frames there would only be one super of nectar. Should I put some more foundation in with the queen at the bottom or will the super above do the job. There is one frame of foundation in the bottom BB at the moment.

 

[Obee1]

.
To me that demareering seems to be real catastrophe.
Weathers in UK are cold and you devide the brood area that way.

And what ever happends and what ever weather, I would not split the brood space when I try to build up the hive to full strength.

Foundations should be enough to prevent swarming.

And if queen cells appears, then do a AS. Nothing preventive panicing is needed..

Probably bees feel themselves queenless in topmost brood box and they start to do queen cells.
.

The brood area is now condensed at the top of the hive apart from one frame. I expect the top will build queen cells - I will deal with them.

 

[Millet]

A Marie this time of the year, should i be worried or do you live in South Africa..

 

[Finman]

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I have read about preventive swarming control, that they move all brood frames and honey frames over the excluder.

But in this case honey frames have old winter food and I would put food frames in the centre of foundation box. Bees start to move stores at once to supers and they make brood into those frames.

Then you have a foundation box under the brood box and the queen is forged to lay in lower box and bees must draw foundations.

In Finland we have a gang, who keep the brood box topmost They say that bees do not swarm. They force the queen lay again and again to the foundation box.

But what is wrong in their system is, that the system is against bees' natural instincts. I think that I get 3 times more honey from my hives. Guys do not tell much about their big yields.

 

[Finman]

. I expect the top will build queen cells - I will deal with them.

But that was not the purpose of demareering. Purpose was NOT to get queen cells.
.

 

[Swarm]

Emergency cells maybe, there is a difference

 

[Obee1]

A Marie this time of the year, should i be worried or do you live in South Africa..

Not quite South Africa. But I live right in the centre of a very large city and my garden is very sheltered. Hence the very large colony

 

[nantmoel]

Not quite South Africa. But I live right in the centre of a very large city and my garden is very sheltered. Hence the very large colony

Lucky bugger!

 

[Millet]

Not quite South Africa. But I live right in the centre of a very large city and my garden is very sheltered. Hence the very large colony

Good luck,

 

[Tremyfro]

Not quite South Africa. But I live right in the centre of a very large city and my garden is very sheltered. Hence the very large colony

Can my bees come for a holiday in your garden?

 

[Obee1]

Can my bees come for a holiday in your garden?

If only it were bigger than a postage stamp! The park opposite has such wonderful forage but most of the surrounding houses are Victorian with small gardens. Been racking my brains where else I can put a hive round here without annoying the neighbours. I'm thinking rooftops may be the way to go.

 

[Finman]

.
Canadian Honeybee Suite evaluates Demareering with headline "mystified Demareering". It is done same way as Obee1 did.
Right, and it is repeated after 8 days. Queen cells are picked off from brood box when they appear.

I would not touch even with stick to that system. That is huge.

Shoud I run that system with my 6-8 langstroth box hives?

I do an AS, and then swarming danger is gone in that hive.

 

[Finman]

.
I would call this method "close your eyes and dive".

I have so short summer that I have not afford to spoil the crop.

My spring starts at the first week of May, when willows starts blooming. When hive rear brood at the first week of May, those bees forage yield at the end of June. It is raspberry. Before that I have 2-3 weeks blooming gap after dandelion, and then hives swarm.

The most important in this shedule is that bees rear brood with full speed in June. There is no time to mix their brood rearing. Our summer is often so cold, that bees do not stand brood area splitting.

When I see queen cells in the hive, I try to make at once AS. I do not hope that it gives up from swarming.

In AS it is important, that swarming fever makes a short interrupt in laying.
Demareering is such, that it disturbes brood rearing more than swarming fever + AS.

I understand now, that our guys have some kind of demareering all the time, but as said, their yields are poor. Not my case


.

 

[Obee1]

.
I would call this method "close your eyes and dive".

I have so short summer that I have not afford to spoil the crop.

My spring starts at the first week of May, when willows starts blooming. When hive rear brood at the first week of May, those bees forage yield at the end of June. It is raspberry. Before that I have 2-3 weeks blooming gap after dandelion, and then hives swarm.

The most important in this shedule is that bees rear brood with full speed in June. There is no time to mix their brood rearing. Our summer is often so cold, that bees do not stand brood area splitting.

When I see queen cells in the hive, I try to make at once AS. I do not hope that it gives up from swarming.

In AS it is important, that swarming fever makes a short interrupt in laying.
Demareering is such, that it disturbes brood rearing more than swarming fever + AS.

I understand now, that our guys have some kind of demareering all the time, but as said, their yields are poor. Not my case


.

My overriding concern with this hive is swarm prevention. It is surrounded with hundreds of tall trees and chimneys to settle in and all the neighbours know it's me that keeps bees. Hence preemptive swarm control. this hive would also grow to three maybe four boxes if left to it - last year I regularly took brood frames away and used them for bolstering other hives and it still completely filled two boxes and had four to five supers. whilst the forage is excellent here close proximity of members of the public and two schools within 100 yards means I have to try keep it a bit smaller than its maximum potential.
It's all a juggling act - so hopefully they won't swarm - and if I lose a bit of the large crop it gives me that's a trade off I have to make in order to keep bees where i can see them as I sit in my front room.

It's not All about the honey crop

 

[Finman]

.

Only real prevention is that you have a bee stock which do not swarm. To keep such stock is very difficult.
If your colony has healty genes, and it wants to swarm, you cannot prevent it.
Reproduction is the most important goal in bees' life.

If honey crop does not mean much, let the swarms go then.

Clip the wing of queen. Then swarms return to the hive if they leave.

But you cannot quard one lowsy hive the whole summer there and sit on site.

Demaree will not save you. Huge work.
.
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But oriniginal question, did you do demaree right, answer is yes.
I ask an hour ago from 1500 hive owner, how many in Finland use Demaree in swarm control. Answer was: practically no one. It seems to proper to British beekeeping.
.
.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So I bit the bullet and demaree'd. My first time.
The queen is 2014 Bucky. There were 14 frames with varying amounts of brood through the two boxes and they had filled a super completely with nectar in a week but not yet capped it.
I condensed the two Bb into one at the top.
So the set up is now
Floor
Brood box (poly) with 1 brood frame plus queen. Drawn combs and 2 food frames
QE
Three supers. Bottom one is full of nectar. Rest are 50/50 drawn and foundation
QE
Broodbox with 11 brood frames some of which are quite pollen laden and some have honey arches.
Crownboard
.

Bit early but with the strength of the colony I see no problem - everything done correctly - just remember to do regular checks the next ten days for any QC's in the top box.
I see that most of the incoherent babble after your OP is demonstrable of the fact that someone hasn't a clue to how a demarree works

 

[YorkshireBees]

Personally I don't transfer any brood to the bottom BB as the whole idea is that the bees feel they have swarmed already. But that's my personal opinion.

The other thing I do is use a crownboard (under the top BB) with an entrance slot cut in the side and a piece of QE covering the feeding hole(s) so that the bees and especially the drones can exit the upper BB without having to travel down to the bottom BB.

What you will find is that the QE under the top BB will end up almost blocked by drones attempting to get through it when they want to leave the hive!

In terms of placement of the almost full super that is again a matter of opinion / personal preference.