Throwback Thursday: Eight Weeks After My Demaree Split
- Laurence Edwards
- Nov 27, 2025
- 3 min read
How a single swarm-control technique created one of the strongest colonies of my season
Every Thursday I revisit an older beekeeping video and turn it into a short article. These Throwback Thursday blogs are designed to help new and experienced beekeepers learn proven techniques that work in real UK conditions, and then dive deeper by watching the original footage on YouTube.
This week I’m looking back at a full inspection eight weeks after I carried out a Demaree split, one of my favourite methods for preventing swarming and increasing honey production.
Here’s the original video if you want to watch it: https://youtu.be/-pijgzd2HyQ
Why I Chose the Demaree Split for This Colony
Earlier in the season I could see the colony building quickly and I knew the swarming instinct wasn’t far away. I wanted to stop that urge before the bees acted on it, so I used the Demaree method as a pre-emptive swarm-control manipulation (check out the full technique below):
I moved the two original brood boxes up, added a new 14x12 brood box below, and placed a single frame of emerging brood and the clipped queen inside that new box. The rest of the brood area was filled with a mix of drawn comb and foundation.
It’s a simple, reliable approach that gives the bees space, removes pressure from the brood nest, and sets them up to hit the nectar flows with maximum strength. I definitely went WAY too far in this video with a double brood demaree and a 14 x 12 box! I now stick to a single demaree system on national deep brood boxes, as per the process in the video above.
What I Found Eight Weeks Later
When I returned to this hive eight weeks after that split, I could see immediately that it had worked even better than expected. The colony had grown so large that the hive was nearly seven feet tall. Every box was heavy, full of bees, and loaded with stores.
The top super alone was packed with nectar and around 50 to 80 percent capped. The 14x12 above that was absolutely rammed. You would be amazed at how much honey a single 14x12 frame can hold. Some of those frames are the equivalent of nearly three super frames.
Even the National deeps I used as supers were bursting with honey. A couple of those boxes must have been close to 35 to 40 pounds. Everything about this colony showed classic signs of successful swarm management and perfectly timed forage availability, or so I thought!
Inside the Brood Box
Like any beekeeper, this was the moment I was waiting for. Opening the brood box revealed a huge population of bees, a strong and consistent brood pattern, and the same 2019 clipped queen doing exactly what I hoped she would.
There was brood in all stages, plenty of eggs, and a good distribution of pollen and nectar. They had started to backfill the brood nest, which told me congestion was increasing. And then I spotted what I suspected would eventually appear: early swarm cells at the bottom of the frames.
This is the beauty of the Demaree method. It doesn’t stop swarming forever, but it delays it just long enough to give you a massive honey harvest before the next manipulation!
The Next Steps
Because they had started building swarm cells, I used them to carry out a clean artificial swarm. No panic. No lost bees. No chasing swarms through hedges. Just a controlled, textbook split. Like this.
Why This Throwback Is Still Relevant Today
This remains one of my clearest demonstrations of why the Demaree method is such a valuable technique for beekeepers of all experience levels. It helped me:
reduce swarming pressure
massively increase colony strength
hit the main nectar flow with the maximum number of foragers
create a bumper honey crop
safely split the colony later in the season
If you’re searching for ways to stop your bees (or delay them) from swarming, improve your honey yields, or manage a fast-growing colony, this is one of the best techniques to master.
Final Thoughts
Looking back at this colony eight weeks after the Demaree split reminds me how powerful good timing can be in beekeeping. One well-planned intervention gave the bees space to grow, delayed swarming for nearly two months, and delivered a huge honey crop before I needed to step in again.
If you’d like to see this technique in action, the full YouTube video shows every part of the inspection: https://youtu.be/-pijgzd2HyQ and here is a playlist with my best swarm prevention strategies and management techniques:
And if you want structured, step-by-step training on how to handle colony growth, prevent swarming and maximise honey yields, everything is inside 14 Day Beekeeper.
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