Converting hives in deeps to mediums

[Moonshae]

Next year, I'd like to convert my deeps to mediums, so I can be using all the same depth of boxes. What's a good method for making this conversion? My concern is that I'd be removing any stored pollen and honey with the deeps, setting them back. It'll be their second year, so I'd really like to have a harvest next year. I'm willing to deal with the inconvenience of deeps if switching means I'd have to put off a harvest for another year.

[Michael Bush]

There are all sorts of things you can do.  But think of it this way.  What you want to do is get all the deep frames out of the hives.  You can pull empty ones in the spring (there will be some) you can harvest them if they are full of honey.  You can put mediums in their place and when there is brood in the mediums you can move it up above an excluder with the queen and wait for the brood below to emerge and then pull the whole box.

You can also just add medium boxes on top and wait for them to move up.

You can also do a cut out and tie all the brood into medium frames.

You can also cut a few of them to give the queen a brood nest and put this above the excluder with some mediums in their place until the brood emerges and then move the medium frames up and harvest the deeps.

It's a lot of variations on the same theme.