What happens when I....

[FordGuy]

put deep box of brood above a new box (medium)?  I am n the process of converting to all mediums under the tutilage of m.  bush, and I have begun by placing a medium of drawn comb over the bottom board, and placing the old deep brood chamber above it.  What will the bees do?  Will queen start laying eggs in new medium?  Does she prefer to lay down low like that?  Thanks.

[Robo]

If your goal is to remove the deep from the picture, your better off to put the medium on top of the deep and let the queen move up.   Once she is moved up,  switch the supers and put an excluder between to keep her out of the deep until all the brood has emerged at which time you can remove the deep and excluder.  You'll need to add additional mediums in the process too.

She may move down in your current setup, but they tend to move up easier than down.

[Michael Bush]

>put deep box of brood above a new box (medium)? I am n the process of converting to all mediums under the tutilage of m. bush, and I have begun by placing a medium of drawn comb over the bottom board, and placing the old deep brood chamber above it. What will the bees do? Will queen start laying eggs in new medium? Does she prefer to lay down low like that?

Bees move into a tree and the start at the top and work down.  When I've put them in an observation hive they have started at the top and worked down.  When I've put a package in five medium boxes of foundationless frames they have started at the top and worked down.  My guess is they will work down into the bottom box as soon as she runs out of space.

You could probably speed this up by doing two things.  First cut some open brood out of one of the deep frames and cut it to fit a medium frame and tie it in and put it in the bottom box.  Second, find the queen and put her in the bottom box and put an excluder above it.  The open brood will draw nurse bees to take care of the queen and she will want to lay where there is brood.  So now you have incited them to have a brood nest in the medium.  I knew those queen excluders were good for something. :)