The principle behind the Demaree method is the rearrangement of a colony, on one site, in such a way as to separate the queen and foraging force from the brood and nurse bees.
Some disadvantages:
- You need to fully understand all the "basics".
- Large colonies result, so probably not a good method for beginners as bees need to be shaken off 22 combs.
- Necessary to find the queen
- Critical to remove all queen cells at the start and after one week; just one queen cell missed in the top box may result in a swarm.
- There may be heavy lifting as can generate a tall stack of boxes
- Drones emerging in the top box get trapped inside by the queen excluder
- Bees can backfill the top brood box brood combs with nectar
- Regular inspections essential.
Some advantages:
- Works well as a swarm control method.
- Comb renewal is simple.
- Good brood combs can be drawn out in the top box
- Generates big, strong colonies and keeps the entire foraging force together
- Can be used for queenright cell raising when queen rearing, without the need to set up another colony.
Adapted from - Credit: Dave Cushman's website - with alterations and additions