This is our 2nd winter with 3 hives....2 Italian and 1 Carny. Everything we use is 8 frame deeps. Last winter we uneventfully removed 3 supers (only got 5 pts) leaving 2 boxes for each hive, for brood and stores. This I take it is "typical." They wintered well....haven't fed them since last summer. This year we got nearly 5 gallons. Halfway through the summer though our really strong Italian hive went weak, might have swarmed, and the slow Carny hive went gangbusters. The Carny hive is still way crowded with bees. About a month ago we took the Carny hive down to 2 boxes but put a box with empty frames back on after a day of watching them bearding and seemingly not having enough room inside. It doesn't seem like there'd be room for them if I left the top super off. It's gonna get cold soon and I need to get things rapped up. Should I just force this issue and take the top box off? Is there such a thing as too much room in a cold winter? Any way to get those Carnys into a hive thats short on Italians?