So what about George Imiries thoughts on reversing. I read starting in Feb. then about three times before flow starts if using deeps. I'm trying to build up my hive counts with existing hives so I want to help them out as much as possible.
GI was dedicated teacher, and I can't dispute his success at keeping bees in Maryland. But, if I performed some of George's tricks here in the Champlain valley, I could see real problems...Imrie Shims, or having to reverse 3 times starting in February.
If you want to practice reversing, ask your self...why? Earlier buildup? Swarm prevention?
Reversing brood chambers won't aid the colony in any way for faster or greater buildup. The queen is only going to lay what she's going to lay. It will aid in swarm control if done at the right time.
When are you seeing swarming in your area? Dandelion/Fruit bloom or just after? If much before, maybe your broodnests aren't large enough for your bees. Prolific queens will maintain large clusters and have 9-12 frames of brood by the D/F bloom. No way to keep them in the hives without early management. If the broodnests are large enough, thay can expand down until you can do your spring work.
I used to reverse twice, once before the apple orchard, and once after. Brutal work and I still had swarming problems...bees in 2-3 deeps and no supers on yet. I look at reversing like this...it places empty comb space above the active cluster. So does supering or CBing. Maintaining empty comb space above the cluster is, you will find, the most important key to swarm control.
So, I reversed in late April early May before apple pollination. The cluster was in the top box, and reversing moved it to the bottom. Empty comb space above...and the cluster moves up. When D/F flow starts, the cluster has already moved up and D/F nectar goes in top box competing with queen for comb space. Swarm preparations are started as if the colony had never been reversed in the first place.
Adding supers will act as a reversal...empty comb abover the cluster. Not necessarily so with excluders. So I eliminated the first reversal and add 2 mediums before D/F bloom. Once the D/F flow starts I reverse and add more supers.
Adding those 2 supers delays the swarm preps until the flow starts. Reversing at the beginning of that flow gets you into the broodnest. You can identify which colonies are just starting cells. Removing those, reversing, and proper supering will stop most colonies. You can do your queen evaluation and disease check at the same inspection. It seems that no matter how strong, once they start making honey, and provided they have enough empty comb above, they won't swarm. Some will, of course, persist. Swarming is a way that some stocks requeen themselves. Work with these colonies and requeen them.
If you are going to split your colonies to make increase, then I would think removing the split from the top brood box and adding empty comb would be like reversing...and you wouldn't have to. At some point you will have enough colonies and maybe you wouldn't want to split as a primary swarm control method. I think you'll find that supering early and often, one reversal at the beginning of that first flow, and allowing the queens to have an unlimited broodnest, will build big honey producing colonies.