To Condense or not to Condense

[vajerzy]

I'm not sure what to do with this one hive:

I'm currently running 2 deeps and 2 shallows on top of the deeps. Some deep frames have ok pollen stores and very little little honey stores- some frames in both deeps are totally empty. The lower super has concentrated brood, honey in the corners, pollen stores- (queen laid eggs in spring so I left as a brood chamber)- basically "textbook". Top super has 4 frames of capped honey and the bees are storing sugar water in these as I feed. It's a healthy hive and gave me a good amount of honey this year- I left a full super and they ate it during the summer- that's why I'm feeding. I moved the lower super between the 2 deeps- I believe the queen is moving up and laying eggs. The top super is still there.

My question is:
Should I condense the hive into 1 deep and 2 supers, allowing a smaller space for the bees to heat in winter? Or leave the hive the way it is- or some other configuration?

Thanks for reading- and hopefully answering!

Mike

[J-Bees]

today I took some empty frames out of the two deeps on one hive and moved the full frames into a single deep, then put the left over deep onto the bottom of the hive so maby they will clean it up somewhat then I will remove it next week.

Good luck

[RayMarler]

Hi Mike,
It would be better to have the bees crowded. If you have a deep full of empty or mostly empty combs, remove it. As the queen moves into the remaining deep and has it half full of brood, put it on the bottom and keep feeding. You say you have pollen frames, keep at least 2 frames pollen in the deep that you keep. Pollen in the suppers is good too, gives them protien stores as they'll end up in the top supers come spring as they move up thru the honey over winter.