Hi,

Over the winter I read the demaree method and decided to give it a try this year.  The third week of may I performed the operation on 20 colonies.  I added three supers of comb or one of foundation.  Apple trees are now past bloom and in a few days berries will start to bloom.  Seven days after I cut cells and/or made a nucs.  All seemed well a few hives were working there supers.  Here comes the problems.  The hives with foundations haven't drawn any comb and the queens crossed the foundations to the top brood chambers.  What should I do about this?  Just switch the brood chambers and add queen excluders.  In several hives that were storing surplus now have empty supers.  The upper most brood chamber I believe is the new storage place.  Can I use these frames to switch with brood in the bottom chamber?  No hives have swarmed yet, most have very large populations.  Can someone on the list with experience with demareeing give me advice on what to do next? Any help would bee appreciated.

Clayton Huestis
Crown Point, NY