Swarm Control – Demaree Method
The Demaree method is a well-tested and useful method of swarm control as it prevents the loss of the swarm without increasing colony numbers.
It has the additional significant advantages of keeping the entire foraging force of the colony together (increased honey increased production) and needing no specialised equipment.
Demaree swarm control – in principle a very straightforward process.
George Demaree – 1870-1944
When Queen cells are found during an inspection you conduct a form of a vertical split, separating the original Queen and flying bees from the nurse bees and sealed brood. You place the latter above a Queen excluder.
A few days later you return and remove any new Queen cells from the top box, so preventing swarming. Finally, you leave all the brood to emerge from the top box.
Demaree swarm control – in practice
The only additional equipment required is a brood box with 10 [8] frames of drawn comb or foundation and an excluder.
That’s it.
Demaree swarm control - more detail:
- If you find Queen cells during an inspection gently remove the brood box and place it on an upturned cover off to one side. This assumes that the Queen cells are unsealed. If there are sealed Queen cells in the box it’s likely that the colony has swarmed, in which case it’s too late to use the Demaree swarm control method.
- Place the new brood box on the original base. Add 8 [6] frames of drawn comb or foundation, leaving a gap in the middle of the box.
- Using minimal smoke, go through the original box and find the Queen.
- Place the frame with the Queen in the middle of the new brood box on the original base. This frame must contain no Queen cells.
- Push the frames in the new brood box together and add in the eleventh frame.
- Add a Queen excluder.
- Add the supers above the Queen excluder. If there were no supers on the original hive then it’s worth adding a couple of supers now. It will provide better separation of the new and old brood boxes and it will encourage the bees to store nectar in supers rather than the top brood box.
- Add a second Queen excluder.
- Place the original brood box on top of the Queen excluder.
- Go through the upper brood box and remove every Queen cell. Shake the bees off the frames to do this. Push the frames together and add one additional frame. Add the crown board and cover.
Leave the colony for one week. At the next inspection you should only need to check the top brood box (i.e. the original one).
- Carefully inspect every frame and remove every Queen cell. Again, you should shake the bees off the frames to do this. If you miss any Queen cells there’s a good chance the colony will swarm.
- Close up the hive and leave the brood in the top box to emerge.
- About 25 days after conducting the first inspection (1 above, where you first found QC’s) you can remove the upper brood box from which all brood will have now emerged.
Explanatory notes
If you have a reasonable understanding of the development cycle of Queen and worker bees you will understand how the Demaree Method simultaneously prevents swarming and keeps the entire colony together.
- By splitting the colony, you separate the Queen and the flying bees from the nurse bees and the brood. The Queen in the new (now bottom) box has ample space to lay, particularly if you provide her with some drawn comb to use.
- The bottom box will now be less crowded and the swarming urge will therefore be much reduced.
- You destroy all of the Queen cells in the original (now top) box when you rearrange the hive. This is to stop any new Queens emerging in this box in the following week.
- However, this top box still contains eggs and young larvae. Since it is now located a long way from the Queenright box the level of Queen pheromone is very low. Consequently, in the week following the hive rearrangement, the bees may create new emergency Queen cells in the top box.
- When you return a week later all the eggs in the top box will have hatched and the youngest larvae left will be about four days old i.e., too old to be reared as new Queens. Therefore, when you destroy all the new Queen cells in the top box, you prevent the colony swarming.
- You can remove the top brood box as soon as all the brood has emerged i.e. 25 days after first rearranging the hive. 25 days because that’s one day more than the development time for a Drone.
Demaree pros and cons
Pros
- An effective method of swarm control
- Relatively simple procedure to implement and understand
- Only requires a single brood box, frames and a Queen excluder
- Generates big, strong colonies and keeps the entire foraging force together
Cons
- Necessary to find the Queen.
- Critical to remove all Queen cells at the start and after one week
- Generates tall stacked boxes, so some heavy lifting may be involved
- Drones in the top box get trapped by the Queen excluder. Release the Drones every few days by lifting the lid off for a couple of minutes.
- In a strong flow the bees can backfill the top box with nectar. Add sufficient supers when you first rearrange the hive