It sounds like it would be similar in effect to a Horsley Board and serve same purpose as the Snelgrove Board which I use for my swarm control. Here is a link

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/horsleybd.html

Snelgroves theory is the different age group bees have different pheremones and that when the numbers of young bees and open brood get proportionately high it triggers swarm preps. I dont know whether that is essentially correct but when you separate the young bees and brood from the queen it seems to do the trick of putting off swarming even though the bottom box is very crowded with foragers.

More on the explanation of this theory if you search "Taranov swarm" and its effects. Using the Snelgrove board for several years on 5 or 6 hives I have not had swarm preps.

 

Do Snelgrove boards work when the hives are closely spaced? I'm thinking about trying them on a couple of colonies this season but there's only about 6-8 inches between the hives & I'm wondering whether bees will have a hard time finding the side entries in such a narrow space.

 

I have not had them that close but certainly have had the entrances almost side by side on the twin four frame nuc stacks. When I am expecting the new queen to be mating and boxes are side by side I do put on little landing boards with different color/designs and have not had one fail to return but that is not a huge sample number. Remember the bees are also using the hive scent for the final approach.

 

Its surprising that the Demaree method of swarm prevention isn't talked about more on your side of the pond.
I find it simple to use, continues to produce a honey crop and gives you good sized queens cells for expansion etc.

 

We tried the Demaree method in the 1930's and found it less than optimal.

Crazy Roland

 

The demaree is a lot easier using our smaller national hives. It would be more difficult lifting a deep langstroth off the top of the stack at each inspection.
The method however is sound.

 

The demarre is worthless imo when there are better productive methods like Mel's OTS or the snelgroove or Mr Palmer, way easier than demarre's method which may produce a split and the word is may, it's not really workable.
a walk away split works better than all that manipulation in the demarre.
oh it make a strong hive, but Mr Palmers nuc method and Mel's OtS have laid pathways for better production instead of old proven ways that do not produce like the reworked and proven methods from our past that produce 10time more than demarre.

it's about time and bee production, and the demarre is outdated work that does not make good sense.

if we both could use the same bees, you can have your one little split from the demarre for next season, and I'll make 4-6 strong ones for next season using better methods to make nucs and splits.

the data is out there you just need to study these better proven production methods.

 

The Demaree is a swarm prevention method when you don't want to make an increase. The colony continues to pile on honey whilst you carry out very simple manipulations every 10 days. You then unite the 2 brood boxes.
Winter losses aren't such a problem over here so come spring all I need to worry about is equalising the brood in colonies and adding extra from the over-wintered nucs.
If I wanted to increase my colony numbers I use my own mated queens which I put into nucs.
The queen cells produced in a Demaree are the same as you get when queen rearing in a queen right setup. So quality queen cells.

 

The Demaree is a swarm prevention method when you don't want to make an increase. The colony continues to pile on honey . . .

I've experimented with the Demaree method a couple of times. It did prevent swarming, but honey production was substantially reduced. In fact, I would have got more honey from the hives, even with the resulting reduced population, if I had simply let them swarm. My thought is Demarree'ing a hive causes a lot of disruption and confusion, which then negatively impacts hive activities such as nectar collection and brood production.

Based on the poor results, I only Demarree'd a few times before giving up on the technique for swarm control. I didn't see anyway to fine tune the technique to overcome the resulting poor honey production.

These are just my personal results, and I am not saying the method doesn't work for others. It just didn't work for me in my locale.



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To the original post, a FB member of the group asked the author to clarify the article on the web site. The Hahnemann Grid is apparently just screening.

My take on it is as follows:

At the first sign of swarming, reverse the brood and supers. Supers on the bottom, brood and queen on top. Place some #8 screen in between the Supers (now on the bottom) and brood boxes (now on top). ink the bees in the original boxes stay with the boxes in the switched location. Theory is that this causes a disruption in the bees by forcing them to do jobs they wouldn't otherwise be doing. After two day put everything back and remove the screen. By that time queen cells should be torn down and swarm urge should have passed.

Anyone care to re-read it and see if their takeaway is the same as mine?

 

10 days is too soon to be making another round. The methods we have used since the 1940's work better, and on a 14 day rotation.

Crazy Roland

 

At the first sign of swarming, reverse the brood and supers. Supers on the bottom, brood and queen on top. Place some #8 screen in between the Supers (now on the bottom) and brood boxes (now on top). ink the bees in the original boxes stay with the boxes in the switched location. Theory is that this causes a disruption in the bees by forcing them to do jobs they wouldn't otherwise be doing. After two day put everything back and remove the screen. By that time queen cells should be torn down and swarm urge should have passed.

Wont the bees above the #8 screen be trapped in unless there is a top entrance?

 

I think that's the point but I'm not sure I'm reading it correctly.