transitioning to mediums

[twb]

I plan to transition to medium depths for brood boxes.  I presume it is o.k. to use a deep box and two mediums on top.  That is my plan for this season and I will go to all meduims the next year if I think I will like it.  But when using three brood boxes where do you usually find swarm cells?  Do you need to tip both top boxes to look for cells or are they typically between the second and third?

[Michael Bush]

>presume it is o.k. to use a deep box and two mediums on top.

Sure.  The typical hive in the region of Tennesee, North and South Carolina etc. the typical hive is a deep and a shallow or a medium for brood.

> That is my plan for this season and I will go to all meduims the next year if I think I will like it.

I think you will.  :)

>  But when using three brood boxes where do you usually find swarm cells?  Do you need to tip both top boxes to look for cells or are they typically between the second and third?

I don't generally look for swarm cells.  I look for where the queen is and for backfilling of the brood nest.  In the process I sometimes find some swarm cells and make splits with them.  I would not rely on that to control swarming as by the time they have swarm cells you're too late to do anything useful except split the hive.  But if you wish to look for them, I'd look on the bottom of all the brood boxes.

[Brian D. Bray]

I plan to transition to medium depths for brood boxes.  I presume it is o.k. to use a deep box and two mediums on top.  That is my plan for this season and I will go to all meduims the next year if I think I will like it.  But when using three brood boxes where do you usually find swarm cells?  Do you need to tip both top boxes to look for cells or are they typically between the second and third?

I've found that it is easiest to transistion by moving the deep up and then off the hive as a honey filled super.  Just start by putting the medium on the bottom, then lift the deep and replace with a medium each time a super is needed.  By the end of the season you should have a 4 medium hive with at least a deep for harvest and maybe more.  Then cut down the deep into a medium, melt the wax, cut down the frames to medium size, put the melted wax into the groves and reinstall on a hive.  You're now fully mediums and foundationless to boot.

[annette]

I did this very thing this past summer. I knew the queen was up above in the medium super, so I placed a queen excluder on top of the bottom deep super (to keep her from going back down there) and waited until all the brood in that bottom super hatched out. Then I removed that super totally. There were a few frames filled with pollen, which I cut down to mediums and placed back into the medium supers.

This was the advice I received from some good members here and it worked out well.

Annette

[twb]

Thanks much.  Sounds good.  Have a Merry Christmas.