My bees are packed tight, from wall to wall, in 2 deep brood boxes (outside frames are capped honey)...but I can't seem to get them to move up and draw the foundation in my first medium super. Since the frame sizes are different, I can't draw them up with a frame from the brood nest. If I put the super between my two brood boxes and let them draw out regular brood comb frames, can I (actually the bees) convert those frames back to honey frames in the future if I move it to the top of my hive, or will I be stuck with a medium super full of drawn brood comb? Can that medium super brood comb be used for extracted honey production in the future?
-Mike
Try putting a medium frame in the deep until it's drawn and hopefully full of brood and then pull it up to the deep. You may have to cut some comb off the bottom, if you do rubber band it into an empty medium frame.
That was another option I was considering....making a spacer block for the bottom of a medium frame and putting it in my deep. I like your idea better....Thanks.
Regarding the different types of combs...are they otherwise compatible?...ie, can you put a brood comb above a QE (or just in an upper honey super) and will it become a honey storage comb that you could extract...or are there significant differences that make these two types of combs incompatible?
Another option is to move a deep frame of brood up to the medium and leave the space in the box below for it to hang down...
>Regarding the different types of combs...are they otherwise compatible?
Yes.
>...ie, can you put a brood comb above a QE (or just in an upper honey super) and will it become a honey storage comb that you could extract...
Yes. After the bees emerge they will store honey in it.
>or are there significant differences that make these two types of combs incompatible?
No. There are not. Some people say that dark comb makes dark honey. My experience and the research I've read would contradict this.