Two weeks ago I put a 10 frame deep with drawn comb out at my hunting property in mid Georgia. Yesterday I went back and found a feral swarm and taken up residence in it. I brought it home set it up and took a peek inside. The bees had good stores with a brood pattern the my other queens would be jealous of. So I thought I would add a medium on top. All of my active hives are medium supers and so will this feral hive when I can get them changed over. With all the swarm activity this year I was down to just one empty deep. In my haste to cut the deep down to a medium yesterday I cut it at 6 7/8" put frames with starter strips on it and then today realized what I had done. Should I take it back off and cut a 1/8" off or leave it until I get more supers? I have more equipment on order but won't be here until the end of this week at the earliest but more likely it will be the middle of next week. What do ya think?
First off, when cutting a deep down to another size. "Don't" use the frame measurement.
Take another box the size you're cutting it to and lay both on the side with the deep on bottom.
get one side and the ends flush and mark, making sure you're cutting the "bottom "side.
Make sure to allow for saw kurf.
I don't think 1/8th will hurt that much until you can get it corrected.
doak
If I had used frame measurements to cut the body down, then it would have been to small, I would have had bottom bars sitting on top of top bars with no space between them. That could be just as bad as what I did, I don't know that's why I'm asking. For me a tape measure, pencil, and a straight edge are the easist way to cut a body down. That is if I can remember what the dimensions are.
Only a pencil and saw.
Lay the deep on its side.
Place a medium on top and get the top side of both boxes even.
mark it.
Try to saw where you will saw the pencil mark away and no more.
You will get a variable with a measuring tape a lot.
I like using the wooden folding carpenters ruler.
I also have to use a not pad a lot. can't beat it.
doak
If I had a extra medium super, instead of laying it on a deep to measure and cut, I would have taken it and put frames in it and took the wrong size medium off and cut it down at a later time and I would have never posted this tread. I'm not trying to find out the best way to cut supers down. I'm trying to find out what if any adverse effect there are for having to much space.
i would put that 1/8" too deep medium on the bottom right above the bottom board and not worry about it. i'm guessing that when you cut it down you cut off the bottom so the frame rabbits are as they were originally.
Quote from: randydrivesabus on May 11, 2008, 08:25:39 PM
i would put that 1/8" too deep medium on the bottom right above the bottom board and not worry about it. i'm guessing that when you cut it down you cut off the bottom so the frame rabbits are as they were originally.
Best solution. But I have mediums at 6 7/8 with 6 1/2 frames. and don't have a problem. Maybe it's because I get it all from the same source.
Wes it not going to hurt a thing . Bees may make a little more bur comb thats about it.
You could as Randy said just put it on the bottom board . I wouldnt be to concern over it...................Little John_NC
Thanks for the replys. I'll do as Randy suggest. When they draw some comb in that super and the queen moves up and starts laying I can switch the two bodys around and put a queen excluder between them and once the brood has emerged take the deep off for good.