Don't Split! Get a big honey crop with the Demaree method

I was told that you do not want to or your not allowed to sell honey that has been in a brewed frame you can keep it for yourself give it away or feed it back to the bees I don’t know if it’s federal or state or if that was just somebody filling that strong about it
Do you know anything about it?

I work with all medium 8 frame boxes, so I am not sure how this would work. I'll need to think about it.

I used the demaree method last year and got 100 lbs . This year I will do the same but lost one hive this winter so I will save a frame with a single capped queen cell to start a replacement hive. Being 73 full deeps are a bear to move so I built a platform and a young neighbor to help. I have had my original hive for 4 years. Thanks for you advice. I’m in central New Jersey .

All these methods are insanely labor intensive and require too much equipment..

We do this in South Florida our method is this: we put on the second deep, as soon as 5 frames are in the second deep we place an empty box any size on the pallet then the second deep with the 5 frames of brood bees and honey then an excluder 2 empty honey supers then tbe bottom deep on top. We don't have swarming issues here. hope that helps

I did this method past year and I collected 50kg per hive. In addition I put all the queen cells in a special boxes and I had 17 new queens in just one bee hive.

I have been watching your videos , thank you !

Wouldn't the drones get stuck up in the top?

Thanks for your breakdown. Do you suggest an upper entrance to help manage the crowding at the entrance when you have all those foragers?

Your camera isnt focused on your drawings.

Thank you for your video! So easy to understand! I lost both of my hives over winter on my first year 😢 have to start all over again this year but I struggled hard with swarming last year (caught my swarm twice and saved them), but this would help so much!

Possible negative: Huge hive population. What do i do for overwinter? Isnt this just a delay of the inevitable split, albeit with a big honey harvest. Would like to have heard you teach what to do after honey harvest to stabilize the colony long term

Does anyone let the top brood box raise a queen? I would plan on positioning the inner cover slot down so she could leave for her mating flight. Then I would split the hive after the main honey flow. Would essentially take the most advantage of the high bee numbers during the flow.

Add two more honey supers on top

Do I also need to periodically check the bottom brood box (where the Queen is ) for swarm cells or supercedure cells? ... if so how often. Many thx.

Peter… Great explanation. A caveat I suggest is to inform beekeepers watching this is to not base their rewards of a huge crop of honey on this method just because they perform it. Myself who lives in an area where nectar is not as prevalent as some other areas, would have a very hard time getting that much honey as you do in your area. So the Demeree is great for reducing swarming without lessening the hive size but the honey amount is dependent on one’s nectar amount.

Very helpful. Thank you. As you describe, this will fill deep brood boxes with honey. I have avoided getting honey in brood chambers to avoid exposing honey to mite treatment chemicals and brood material. Any thoughts?

Hi Peter, awesome video again! Thank you! Just a quick question. Do you suggest to put the second entrance on the top box during Demaree method? I thought that may be the way to make those bees (in the top box) believe they don't have queen since they don't pass by the lower box to get out. What's your thought? Thank you.

Are there upper entrances on the demaree splits?

Too much lifting

Thanks for video. Method actually good if you have 10-15 hives, but its litle complicated and time-consuming if you have more hives.

Is this method possible for cerana bees species in Nepal

Would it be beneficial to put an entrance in the top brood box on Demaree hive?

This is soooooo much work and still doesn't guarantee no swarming. Why have a HUGE colony, instead of two colonies that produce half the honey each? What is the benefit?

Small homesteader and hoping to start a more natural approach I don't think we would go through hundreds of lbs of honey in a year. No plans to sell, not many friends/family to gift to. :-) I'd probably start another box or two in case of one failing. :-) We've been watching honeybees swarm to our back yard every few years and living in random places on the property. We let them be thinking they'd go to the bee boxes at the end of our road (knowing zero about honeybees). Apparently it's common to just allow bees to swarm here (and they swarm to my backyard of lilacs and roses). Knowing it's not criminal theft, I bought a hive box set for my yard to encourage the next swarm to stick around and we'll go from there. :-D

Thank You, Peter. At the end of my beekeeping life, I think I should try this method. I keep only two hives now, so, there should be time enough to play with them. No swarming too. Perfect tutorial and a great video. Greetings. Adam. Bye.

How much of the honey do I leave for the bees?

can you do this in a long hive

This is a proven method, but it does not work well down south where the bees come out of winter very strong.

when do you or do you ever reverse the boxes back to the standard order?

To stop swarming you don’t have to do all that work if you say you have to go into the hive every week just kill those swarm cells every week lol and don’t have to do any shuffle lol if you have just one hive I understand you can play with it as much as you want but if you have 50 or more the method is just waste of time and energy

This video was good. I understand it now. It puts a bottleneck on population production but keeps the existing workforce to continue making honey.

Is this like the Rythm method ?

Feed them when you do this it will help

Seems like a lot of extra Labor ?

why 2 brood chambers? do the math: * 2000 eggs (worker bees) max per day per 21 days cycle = 42,000 cells needed. with ~6900 cells per LS deep drawn comb frame that makes max 6 frames of LS deep needed for max laying capacity!!!!!!!!! pls think!
* 3000 eggs (worker bees) max per day per 21 days cycle = 63,000 cells that make 9 frames LS deep max needed !!!!!!!!! do youn have queens that lay 3000 eggs a day? doubt it - US queens are known to lack vitality, european Buckfast do even up to 4000 cells in comparison

Mr. Peter, i am a hobbiest of beekeeping. Thanks alot very informative videos but, i was curious if that method is applicable to the tropical country?

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

I'm hoping to try Demaree method soon. But I have a question though, I saw on one of Randy Oliver's video, that one of the swarm triggers is the lack of young brood pheramone. So if I place all capped brood in the bottom box, even with a queen, would the remaining adult bees be triggered to produce a swarm cell as soon as the queen lays a patch of eggs? Is it also a second threat of swarm cells, when all the uncapped young brood is up top, without any queen pheramone? Thanks for the video.

Hi Peter , so when I move the two brood boxes up top with supers below them and a new brood box with a excluder and frame with the queen and some drawn and undrawn comb so leave it like that until the honey flow is over unless it get full of course, thanks!

From Canada 🇨🇦

Pozdrawiam serdecznie i życzę miłego dnia

In the last two examples there is literally 1 frame of capped brood. Leaving 19 frames to fill. Can you initially super without the honey box and place it once the bottom boxes fill?

WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THIS BUT MAGIC MARKERS ARE LIKE FINGER NAILS ON A CHALK BOARD, MAKES ME SHIVER

Thank you so much for your video, am learning

You need a camera and AI SYSTEM TO LASER OR ELECTROSTATICALLY destroy unwelcome hive visitors. Similar to the camera driven fly rappers. Or maybe a high pressure tiny soapy water jet.

Great video. Best video in showing how the Demaree method can work different for every beekeepers taste. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

So what do you do the following year ?

BTW great video. Learning a lot

If the 2 honey supers under your brood boxes get full do you pull them or just sdd another super. Where do you add the super, on top of brood boxes or on top of 2 supers separating the brood .