Moving from a deep & med to 2 deep configuration

[dfizer]

Hello all -

At the end of last year I had a small hive (10 frame deep box) that was the offspring of a split done kind of late in the year that I really didn't expect to make it through the year but for encouragement I added a super full of honey to make sure that they had plenty of food to get through the winter.  I treated this hive with api-guard to eliminate and mite issues then put it to bed for the winter.  Well, low and behold they came through the winter just fine.  Now the question is how do I transition this hive from a deep and a medium to two deeps or do I need to even do that?  The only reason I'd be doing this is because all the rest of my hives are two deeps and however many supers they can fill up. 

I suspect that when I get into this hive I will find brood in the super which is one on top.  How do I get the bees to move the brood down or should I just reverse the boxes and put the deep on top of the super?  Would it simply make sense to just add the second deep between the bottom deep and the medium and let them start drawing those frames then filling them with brood??? 

Please offer any advice you wish.

David

[Steel Tiger]

Wait for the bees to move down then put a deep between them. After making sure the queen is in the bottom two, you could put an excluder or a super full of honey between the brood super and the top deep until the brood emerge. More than likely they'll start loading honey into the super...even without an excluder.
 If you're in a rush, you can cut the combs from the super frames and rubber band them into deep frames.

[Finski]

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Let the hive build up. First they lay full the super on top, and when colony gets more bees, it moves down to lay.

What you can do is to spoil the build up. Nothing wrong if bees use super as brood box.

Reverse now means that the colony is not able (perhaps) keep warm all room and they destroy part of brood.

When the colony grows, you put the super over the excluder. Bees emerge and hive fills combs with honey.

Be flexiple, and don't let  style orders disturb the build up of the hive.


I have mixed configuration in many hives. Main issue is that colonies clear themselves out from spring.
I do not disturb their order. Bees know what they are doing.

..

[10framer]

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Let the hive build up. First they lay full the super on top, and when colony gets more bees, it moves down to lay.

What you can do is to spoil the build up. Nothing wrong if bees use super as brood box.

Reverse now means that the colony is not able (perhaps) keep warm all room and they destroy part of brood.

When the colony grows, you put the super over the excluder. Bees emerge and hive fills combs with honey.

Be flexiple, and don't let  style orders disturb the build up of the hive.


I have mixed configuration in many hives. Main issue is that colonies clear themselves out from spring.
I do not disturb their order. Bees know what they are doing.

..

^^^^^  let the bees build up and as they start forcing the queen down put a deep below the deep and super that are already there.  the bees will naturally push the queen down.

[dfizer]

Thank you for the advice and information.  Will the queen just go to the bottom box on her own?  How will I know when this happens?  I like Finski's concept of letting the hive build up then later putting an excluder between the deep and super.  At that point I will add the additional deep.  The only thing I have to guard against is trapping the queen above the excluder.  How can I insure she is down below in the deep that is there currently?

David

[10framer]

the bees will most likely fill the super with honey and push her down naturally.  the best way to be sure is to find the queen.   don't wait too long and let the bees get swarmy on you.