deep nuc to medium hive?

[Pre-Bee (Rowan)]

What is the best way to convert from a deep nuc to an all mediums hive?  I was thinking that I could put the nuc frames in a deep box and fill the rest of the space with medium frames for them to draw.  After I have a full medium, shake or fume the bees out of the deep and put a queen extruder between them so the hive can finish raising the brood in the deep while the queen lays in the medium(s).  Then perhaps remove the deeps, feeding the honey back to the bees.  Will the bees remove pollen from crushed comb, like they will with honey?

Am I missing something, or is there a better/faster way to do this?  I don't think the plastic shipping nucs have removable bottom boards, but I could be wrong.   :) :?

[Vance G]

The most simple I have hard is put your deep frames in two medium boxes with medium frames filling the void on upper and lower boxes.  When the bees emerge from the outer frame on the side of the box you put the nuc, remove that frame and the drone comb below and move the remaining deeps to that sided and fill in the middle with medium frames upper and lower box.  Repeat as many times as you have frames in the nucs.  Sacrifice the drone comb on the bottom of the deep frames for mite suppression.  Put an empty medium on top of your top bars, put on the cover  and lay the deep frame on its side to be robbed out then give it to someone running deeps or discard.

[sterling]

If you want to be aggressive you could cut the comb out of the deep frames to fit medium frames and put it in medium frames with rubberbands. A deep comb will fill one and almost a half medium frame. The bees will fill the half in a short time. If they are wired just cut the wire and leave it in the comb. You may destroy some brood but this is a one shot deal.

[Jim134]

Just have the bee push the eggs and Queen to the lower boxes. Just my $0.02

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,32424.msg265723.html#msg265723



    BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

[FRAMEshift]

The most simple I have hard is put your deep frames in two medium boxes with medium frames filling the void on upper and lower boxes.  

I think this is the easiest way. Get the deeps out as soon as they are relatively empty.  

[CBEE]

I would use Vance's method. It is easier to me to just shift a few frames around then all that slicing and dicing unless you have to. :-D

[T Beek]

I've only had to do this once so keep that in mind (I've got 2 NUCs on order so the review will help me out too  ;). 

I took the 'deep' frames from the NUC, placing them into a deep super.  I think it was a four frame NUC, but I placed them in a deep box interspaced w/ empty 'medium' comb frames.  It took about 2 weeks, maybe a bit more for them to fill up the mediums satisfactorily (I did have to keep the medium bottoms trimmed until the transfer). 

By 2-3 weeks time most of the NUC comb had seen its transition making the job of cutting off the bottoms quite simple.  I then took the whole works, cut-off frames and newly filled frames and placed them on the 'bottom' of a medium with an empty box full of empty comb on top, eventually discarding the remaining bottomless NUC frames.

This all said I don't know if I'll do it quite the same way as I may just place the Nuc frames in two mediums as was described above.  Have fun.

WATCH OUT FOR THAT QUEEN!

t

[buzzbee]

After you guys do your transfers,please come back to this thread and let us know how it worked out for you.And tell about any problems if any.
Others will cross this situation again.

[bee-nuts]

The vance way sounds like it would work the best to me.  If the nuc comes with a removable bottom board you can sit it on top of hive and let them move down and backfill the nuc with honey.  But I would personaly just use the vance method.  I am guessing you would be able to pull a frame out every week once things got going.

Using medium frames in deeps or deep frames in two medium boxes for drone comb mite removal would work well I think.  It also gives me a good idea on how to raise drones in my good hives for mating queens without buing drone foundation or using emty combs that could turn into a big mess.  Also a good way to monitor mite population once in a while by simply incerting a short frame then removing it two weeks later to inspect the drone combs mite contamination.  If you have a high mite population either treat or ramp up drone comb removal.

[Pre-Bee (Rowan)]

Update!  I've got my deep frames in two medium boxes and the rest of the top box filled with medium frames.  I did have them in the lower box as well, but I didn't think I was manipulating the deep frames well enough so that I wouldn't crush too many bees trying to pull them out past the lower medium ones.

They haven't started building comb on any of the medium frames yet, so I'm wondering which would be better for the bees, letting them fill the deeps back up while they are getting established and removing them only after they start filling the mediums, or removing the deeps as soon as possible to encourage them to build comb on the mediums?

[AndrewT]

Last year, after discovering Michael Bush's website, I decided to switch from deeps to mediums, although I plan to continue using shallows for cut-comb production.  Starting in the winter, I took most of my deeps and frames from the barn and cut them down to mediums.  I even made a little jig for my band saw to cut the deep frames at the right height, comb and all, then pry off the two cut off ends from the bottom bar and nail it back onto the shortened side bars.

When I started messing with my bees that year, I found that I had to keep using my deep nucs so that I could take deep frames from existing hives for splits.  Not having enough deep frames left to fill empty spaces, I just used mediums instead.  Some with old comb and some with a strip of foundation.  Later in the season, I saw that the bees used the medium frames in the deep boxes and just added more comb from the bottom bar until it was the same as the surrounding deep frames.  So, now my plan is to keep replacing the deep frames with medium frames until I don't have anymore deep frames with any brood.  Then I'm going to set up medium supers and take the frames out one at a time and cut off the bottom part of the comb, and if it's got worker brood in it, I'll put that in another medium frame with rubber bands.  I'm going to try to get some good pictures of the process.