Medium Hive Body Conversion

[jgiles]

I have been considering converting to medium hive bodies and wanted to do it while I only have a few hives.  I was wondering what is done with the brood and pollen/honey that is stored in the deep frames.  What is the best way to transfer the colony without placing unnecessary stress on them? thanks for any replies

[David LaFerney]

Separate them from the queen with an excluder, then after the brood hatches you can extract the honey or replace the excluder with an inner cover that has a hole in it, and they they will carry the honey down into the nest.  Then you can do whatever you want with the clean empty comb - you could band saw the frames and comb off to fit your mediums, and it would probably be fine even without a bottom bar.  Obviously you can't do this in the dead of winter.

[jgiles]

Thanks for the information, and i didnt have the intentions of doing this until spring.  Just trying to do some preplanning as I build hive bodies.