[Fire Guy]

Here in mid Missouri the day time temps are in the mid 50s to mid 70s and night time temps are mostly in the 40s. My question is , are these temps high enough to try the Demarree method of splitting most of the brood and eggs from the queen. Would the nurse bees be able to keep the brood and eggs warm in a deep box on top of the hive? Would there be enough bees to keep the eggs fed and warm in the bottom box with the queen? This hive is a strong hive. I wanted to use this to requeen this hive and split the old queen into a nuc after the new queen is laying.

 

[AugustC]

Still seems a little early if you ask me. Are there much in the way of drones flying? You don't want a poorly mated queen.

 

[jmgi]

When is your swarm season? Normally you use the Demaree system just prior to that, before any swarm cells are started. There are variations on how to Demaree the hive, are you putting the queen in a bottom box with a frame of eggs and the rest drawn empty comb, adding an excluder on that, then putting honey supers on top of the excluder, then the rest of the brood above that? I would wait for the night time lows to come up a bit more, which would be closer to swarm season I am thinking in your area.

 

[FlowerPlanter]

Swarm season normally starts around mid-April, the late winter and hard last freezes has pushed everything back. The grass and trees are 3 weeks late. No drones yet. I have not even seen a buildup of workers yet.

I would guess at the end of the month, or beginning of May.


Anyone else?