I went out at 5:30 this morning to give blocking up the bottom entrance another try. It was around 70 degrees and the hive was as busy as it is during the day. Tons of pollen coming in. One bee that scurried in was almost solid blue. Her back looked like a bruise.
It took several minutes to squeeze the entrance reducer back onto both hives without crushing bees. Since I figured it was going to be a quick project, I didn't bring the smoker or hive tool. I did throw on my jacket and veil. I plugged up the entrance of the first hive with a rock and suddenly there was a mini swarm. Amazing how many bees are coming and going every minute.
I look at the second hive and decided to move down the box with the holes drilled in it. Luckily keys served as a hive tool to pry open the hive. All the bees were extremely calm as I moved their boxes around. I those put back together and blocked off the bottom entrance and stood back to watch.
It took around 8 minutes for some of the bees from the second hive to start entering through the upper entrance. So...right now my set up is...
Medium on the bottom, deep on top of that (brood box), medium on the brood box that has the holes drilled in, and mediums on top of those. My hope is that the bottom medium will become a brood box and the medium with the entrance will become one as well. Next year the deep will be gone and replaced with a medium.