Just finished installing my first bees. Got my used hives a couple of months ago and got my bees today. Only when I started to install them did I realize that all my supers were medium but the 4 frames in my nucs were large. I just went ahead and installed the deep frames in 2 medium supers. These deep frames are well drawn out. If I just leave things the way they are will there be negative consequences ? I am so new at this that I am not even green yet but had a great time and loved every minute :-D
Many thanks
Dave in Ottawa, Canada
if you have some lumber around you could build a deep, it's not that big of a deal. if you're not in to carpentry you can order one. they're pretty cheap. if you let nature take it's course the worst that can happen is the bees building a couple more inches of comb off the bottoms of the frames. good luck.
The bees will build comb from the bottom of the frames to fill in the extra space. Having the deep frames in two mediums will complicate matters. If I were you I would get those nucs in the correct size boxes with enough deep frames to fill in. You can then use the mediums for everything else.
In a pnch you could add 1x4 lumber to the bottom of the medium boxes. The result would be a half inch taller than a standard deep. The simplest option would be to just buy a couple deeps. By the time you get them, there may be some comb built off the bottoms of the frames that you will have to cut off.
Took the simplest way out and bought a couple of deeps with frames, $46 for the pair, second hand. Turned out also I was using the escape board as a top feeder. Fortunately no harm done. Bees seem fine in spite of my screw-ups.
This is fun.
Just make sure you have every possible space you can fit a medium frame in filled. They will build 3" or so under the deep frames. You can cut this off and tie it in a frame someday. But then you could also cut any brood out of the deeps and tie it into a medium frame as well.