A friend and fellow beekeeper in Alabama gave me a medium frame nuc box yesterday. I intend to use it for swarm catching in the Spring, however I don't uses medium hive bodies. Previous swarms have moved into a deep box I also use, and when I'm lucky, the queen begins laying. Therein is the problem. If I catch a swarm and the queen begins laying, I'm stuck with brood in medium frames.
My thoughts were to move those medium frames into a deep box, with 5 more drawn deep frames, and after the queen begins to lay in those deep frames, and the brood in the medium is capped, move those capped-brood-medium-frames above a queen excluder into a medium super with five more medium frames. This will allow them to hatch without being resown with new eggs.
I've not attempted this before, but assume the hatched bees will travel below the queen excluder upon emerging. The nurse bees attending the brood will also have access to the brood during the incubation period...assuming they won't abandon the brood for the bottom deep hivebody.
Anyone deal with this issue before? Any flaw in my plan? It may end up being a hassle, more than I want to deal with.
As always, appreciate any insight you give.
bb