From deeps to mediums

[genie]

Hey Beeks I need your expertise again. I want to know how to go from deeps to meds when making splits.I have 3 hives That I plan to split and all of them have deeps on the bottoms (or brood frames) so the question is that I want to start using mediums on all of my hives. How do I make splits with deep frames going to a medium? I don't have any med frames with brood or pollen. HOW DO I MAKE THE SPLIT?

THANKS genie,

[Lburou]

Perhaps you could cut the brood comb and mount it in the medium frames temporarily (would depend on your foundation)......The trick is to secure the brood comb in the center of the frame because the bees will secure it in the exact position they find it. Youtube has a lot of videos showing how to do this during cut outs, maybe there is one showing what you want to do. Another alternative would be to go to 8 frame deep boxes if you are doing this because of the weight. HTH

[Vance G]

Put your deep frames in two mediums stacked on a bottom board. AS the frames in the 1 & 10 position become free of brood or if they are, remove them and put medium frames up and down in the center of the two boxes and rotate outward until all brood is goen from the deeps. You can lay the broodless frames on the top bars for the bees to rob out as you proceed. Then cut them down with a table saw and put a new bottom board on the now medium frame. If they are old black comb, just melt them down.

[HIVe+]

With a season's lead time, I made extensions on medium frames to fit deep boxes and changed out some of the deep frames, letting the bees pull them out; then in spring, removed extensions and put in medium box

[Michael Bush]

I usually end up doing a combination of things. Keep in mind that harvesting honey is normal during times of the year when they can replace it. Come spring you usually have an empty deep box that is easy to remove. Sometimes you can get most of the deeps out, but you have one or two of brood left, which you can cut out. If you can only get one deep out of a whole box you can put a medium in and just cut the extra comb later and tie it into a frame. It just depends on how close I can get to a whole box that I can remove.

[genie]

Thanks Michael, do you think that if i reduce down to med supers that i might could still get honey if i do this very early and still have time to make some cut down splits?

[Michael Bush]

Getting honey is mostly a matter of forage available, not size of boxes. Drawn comb is always a head start for anything, and you'll be pulling drawn comb. You can do cutouts on the drawn comb and tie it into frames IF it doesn't have wire or plastic in the way.

[RayMarler]

I set a medium on top of the deep. I removed a central frame from the medium, replacing it with a deep that hung down into the deep below. The bees built comb on the bottom of that deep frame, under the bottom bar. When the bees had built most of the comb in the medium with some brood in it, I removed the deep frame, cut off the bottom wild comb and tied that comb into a medium frame, and put in the medium box, moving the deep frame back down into the bottom deep. I found the queen and put her into the medium and put a queen excluder between the deep and the medium. I then put another medium on top, checker boarding a couple frames to draw the bees up. In 3 to 4 weeks the bottom was empty and I removed it.

You could then add another medium to your hive and have a 3 box stack. When it's built out then split off a box and add another medium to make splits.

[Acebird]

Make a 3 1/2 inch spacer so you can put a medium on top of it when you split. This will fit the 5 deep frames in the center or at lease the two brood frames and the rest can be mediums. Like Michael said, usually in the spring the bottom box will be empty so any burr comb created on the bottom of the medium frames can be cleaned up the following spring.

It is the same thing if you get a nuc supplier that only supplies deep frames. Expand with medium frames on the bottom box and do clean up the next year. NO worries Ha kunta ma tata.

[Joel]

How about just placing two mediums on your deep with bait combs, let the bees move up, make sure the queen is in one of the uppers and then put an excluder on top of the deep. Wait for the brood in the deep to hatch and then use your upper to do your splits and get rid of the deep.

[Jack Grimshaw]

Last year I had plans to make med nucs from deeps.Beggining of April I put a drawn med honey super on a number of hives.2 weeks later the queen had moved up and the med had 4-5 frames of brood and eggs.When the queens arrived 2 weeks after that,the queen had moved down and the supers had honey and little brood.**** bees are smarter than I am.