Long explanation before question, and I am not good at this. All 8 frame supers with 9 frames in them. With an exception which is the question.
Bought a nuc with deep 5 deep frames. That means they deep frames need two supers to fit in hive. That leaves dead space at one point in the hive. It is a real PIA to check them, as I have to have extra boxes to hold the deeps while I do my thing. So I started out with the deeps in the bottom two boxes, along with some medium frames next to them. Well the open space gets burr comb. So tried moving up and of course the dead space gets a bunch more comb. I remove it, but they keep building it. I will not get a deep box, as then I have more deep frames, and I have a bad back, I need the lighter frames.
Now, MY GOAL is to have a hive ready for a long, wet, winter with enough stores to make it thru the winter. I do not plan on taking any honey this season. I want my brood space all tight and no extra space anywhere.
So the suggestions I have had so far are:
Take the 5 frames, get the bees off, cut the comb and put in medium frames. Messy, but a right now fix and the bees have time to repair all the damage before flow ends.
Another is find the queen, put an excluder above her, move the deeps to above the excluder until all brood is hatched and then do the cutting out. I think I like this idea the best so far
Cons on both that I might not be thinking of? I am willing to sacrifice brood at this point, the hive is strong.
I must add I have yet to see this queen in any inspection, but she lays a nice pattern.
Let me offer option three.
Place the deep nuc above a medium of drawn or foundation. Close the opening on top with whatever you got and let the bees move down onto the medium frames. If they cooperate the queen will move down on her own, if not move her yourself after they draw out the medium then the excluder.
The outside frame likely has no brood. Remove it and slide the other 4 out, putting a medium in it's place. When the outside one becomes broodless, repeat the process. By fall, all should be mediums.
PS. I also have a bad back and use all deeps. I have no problem lifting a 9 lb. deep frame.
The queen went right back to laying on the outside one. I tried that.
I like the nuc idea, with a contraption or two that is very workable and not traumatic to any of us. I like that a lot, as I do have deep nucs.
If you have woodworking skills you can cut blocks to fill the extra space. For instance you could do this, stack two mediums and insert five frames in each medium slide these frames to one side then set a wooden block that measures 3 5/8"x7 1/2"x18 3/8" on the bottom board and set the deep frames above that. Then as idee suggests cull out the deep frames as you can but cut an 1 3/8" off of the block each time you remove a frame.
If you have an extra deep nuc then cut it down to a medium and you have the simplest way to migrate them.
Add a super. If she is laying in the outside frame, she is crowded and needs more room.
Okey dokey, got in the hive yesterday and made my decision at the time. The extra space below the deeps had frames with comb built on down off the bottom to fill the empty space and the queen had a fresh batch of eggs in that.
So I looked really close on each frame for the queen, did not see her, set those frames aside, cleaned up the mess, tightened all the frames up, left the fresh eggs on the deeps as a guide for when they have all hatched. Put an excluder on the top of the rest of the hive and put the deeps at he top and filled the side space with capped honey. That left me about 4 empty frames total in the very top of the hive.
Will give it a few days and when I check if they need another box and look for fresh eggs above the excluder.