Jon.21
House Bee
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2021
- Messages
- 139
- Reaction score
- 68
- Location
- Derby, UK
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 4
In my 4th year of beekeeping and still iterating to a solution that works for me to maintain around 4 colonies.
Last year I successfully used the pre emptive demaree to maintain and not increase the number of colonies I have (4off colonies). Ended up doing 3off demaree last year. This year I have taken the same approach but have ended up with 2 colonies this week that have decided on the 2nd week into the 2nd demaree of the year to produce a significant number of swarm cells. Note My approach to the demaree is to not rotate frames each week but to just effectively swap the top and bottom boxes over every 3 weeks placing the queen in the bottom box on a frame of brood.
it seems the advice in this situation is to do a split to get rid of the swarming impulse and then either recombine at a later date or keep the 2 colonies produced. . As I dont have any more space to do this I was wondering whether I could knock all the swarm cells down in the bottom box then put the queen in the top box on a single frame of brood with all other frames in the top box empty. The bottom box would have the remaining brood frames and then after a week knock any queen cells down to make the bottom box hopelessly queenless. Then a couple of weeks (all brood in bottom box now emerged) later put the queen down in the bottom box.on a single frame of brood.
Note the configuration would be working bottom to top - floor, 14x12 brood box , qe, minimum 4off supers, qe, 14x12 brood box , crown board, roof.
My thinking is the queen would have plenty of space and be far enough a way from the brood box in the bottom so effectively split the colonies.
Thought ? Has anyone tried this / does this ? Would this remove the swarming impulse ?
Cheers
Jon
Last year I successfully used the pre emptive demaree to maintain and not increase the number of colonies I have (4off colonies). Ended up doing 3off demaree last year. This year I have taken the same approach but have ended up with 2 colonies this week that have decided on the 2nd week into the 2nd demaree of the year to produce a significant number of swarm cells. Note My approach to the demaree is to not rotate frames each week but to just effectively swap the top and bottom boxes over every 3 weeks placing the queen in the bottom box on a frame of brood.
it seems the advice in this situation is to do a split to get rid of the swarming impulse and then either recombine at a later date or keep the 2 colonies produced. . As I dont have any more space to do this I was wondering whether I could knock all the swarm cells down in the bottom box then put the queen in the top box on a single frame of brood with all other frames in the top box empty. The bottom box would have the remaining brood frames and then after a week knock any queen cells down to make the bottom box hopelessly queenless. Then a couple of weeks (all brood in bottom box now emerged) later put the queen down in the bottom box.on a single frame of brood.
Note the configuration would be working bottom to top - floor, 14x12 brood box , qe, minimum 4off supers, qe, 14x12 brood box , crown board, roof.
My thinking is the queen would have plenty of space and be far enough a way from the brood box in the bottom so effectively split the colonies.
Thought ? Has anyone tried this / does this ? Would this remove the swarming impulse ?
Cheers
Jon