[Steve in PA]

Last fall I decided to try out some resource hives. Most of them were deep over deep but a few were medium over deep. All of my deep over deep nucs are now spoken for. I am just going to squeeze them into a single deep. I would like to use the medium over deeps to try to squeeze a few more nucs sales from. Problem is that the queens are laying in the mediums which would not be a problem if I was planning to keep them.

If I physically move the queen to the deep bottom box and put an excluder on, will enough nurse bees follow her that there won't be an issue? I can make sure there is a honey frame in the bottom for food. My plan would then have the rest moving down after they hatch while she lays in the bottom. Nights are mostly in the upper 30's/low 40's now and getting warmer quickly.

 

[JConnolly]

It would help to have one brood frame in the bottom box.

 

[Steve in PA]

It would help to have one brood frame in the bottom box.

I did exactly that today. I pulled one of the middle bottom deep frames. I took the top 4 mediums off as a box then found the frame the queen was on with some brood. I placed that in the bottom empty spot and put everything back together with the excluder between the bottom deep and top medium.

I made sure there was at least one frame of honey in the bottom next to the brood frame. We'll see how it goes. Both sides of the resource hive are quite angry right now.

 

[JClark]

I would have just put the medium on the bottom. It doesn't have to be on top. Could probably reverse back in a few weeks and they'd be in the Deep.

 

[Steve in PA]

Normally yes, but since these were resource hives the bottom box is stuck in place.