Have I done the right thing. Demaree question.

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Joined
Oct 29, 2013
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Location
Romford
Hive Type
Commercial
Number of Hives
25
So a fortnight ago I carried out my first demaree. On a colony with ten frames of brood.
Seven days later I took a nuc from the top box with a cell they were sealing. Then pinched out the rest of the cells...


Or so thought, popped into the top box today and found a hatched cell and a cell torn down from the side. So I'm assuming there is a virgin running around in the top box now.

Because it was on the cool side I didn't go all the way down to the bottom box to check there however seven days ago the original queen was laying into the fresh drawn comb and as I'd given them almost a full box of starter strips I'm assuming they will have plenty to occupy them.

So because there was possibly a virgin in the top box I decided to shut it up and let them get on with it thinking of she mates and starts laying I can find her easily enough and remove her later.

Can anyone see anything wrong with this course of action?
 
that seems consistent with the advice i've been getting on my demarees

i left for 6-7 days and took down all q cells and cups and then checked 2-3 days after again and found more, so must have missed some or they rebuilt....

but, if you have a virgin in the top and an upper entrance, you can leave her to mate and use as a second colony
 
So because there was possibly a virgin in the top box I decided to shut it up and let them get on with it thinking of she mates and starts laying I can find her easily enough and remove her later.

Can anyone see anything wrong with this course of action?
Nope - as long as you have a top entrance, leave her get on with it (don't bother checking for a good few weeks) when you get brood up there, either just leave her carry on and move the top box on to its own floor or, find the queen and put her in a nuc with a few frames of brood.
 
Thanks both. There is an upper entrance as I'm using a JBM demaree board so will just leave them alone for a while.

ive just demareed another colony in the garden....not because i had fun making a load of JBM boards....or because demaree is a new fad of mine....

went into a colony quickly between work calls and found 9 frames BIA with brood on outer frames of stores too and quite a few cups....left Q in LBB with 1 BIA which she was on and 9x drawn comb and 2x stores! felt a bit empty for her but she mated last July so should be up to the challenge :)
 
and works a treat

my windows all seem to vary in size in my JBM boards, JBM....smallest around 3inch by 2inch but a couple prob a bit larger

interesting though that some colonies havent really drawn QCs so its probably about right size
 

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