2nd Deep - Above or Below, and How Many Frames

[beek4018]

I saw a thread on this from a few years ago, but wanted to see what the current perceived wisdom may be...

I checked my girls last week (package installed on 4-5) and found everything looking ship shape.

They've got 4-6 frames completely drawn and another 1-2 about 75%, the remaining 3-5 are somewhere between 0% and 15% drawn out.

Fully drawn frames are between 60 and 80% full of pollen, uncapped nectar/syrup and brood (eggs and uncapped larva).  There's a bit of capped honey/syrup around the edges of a few frames, and I was starting to see a few brood cells with the faint beginnings of cappings.

I figured that in another week or two I'll be ready for the second deep.

Should I plan to place this on top or down below, and should I include a frame or two ( or more) of brood/syrup/pollen from the first deep? 

And should these frames be some of my "better" frames (completely filled, and capped, etc.), or does that matter?

If I need to put it below, is there any reason I can't simply shift the frames from one box to another, or is there a good reason to actually put a new box down below?

I'm doing this with one gimpy hand, and I haven't really gotten around to training my assistant (wife) yet, so I'll be doing it alone, and want to avoid some heavy lifting.

If I need to put the new deep beneath the old my plans is to:

1. Bring out two extra deep boxes, and transfer the existing drawn frames to it, and then put new (foundation filled) frames into the original first (lower) box leaving room for a few frames of brood.

2. Put a couple brood/syrup/pollen frames into those spaces (if that's what is recommended).

3. Put a deep box on top of the "new" deep (the one with mostly undrawn frames and a couple of starter frames of brood).  I'll transfer my fully drawn frames to this new top box, and back fill the spaces created by putting 2-3 down below with new frames filled with foundation.

Can anybody see major difficulties with this other than:

1. Making sure I prop the "transfer" deep (the one I temporarily put my fully drawn frames into) high enough that I don't crush any bees on the bottom of the drawn frames by placing them in a hive body that sits directly on the ground or in my garden cart (without the extra bee space below that is created by a bottom board.

2. Praying that I don't loose my queen on the ground in the process.

Does it matter where the queen winds up at the end of this process (above or below) as long as she doesn't wind up on the ground?


Thanks,
Glenn

[iddee]

Put the new box on top. Put the frames with the most pollen on the outside of the bottom box. Put 1 or 2 frames of brood in the top box.
Space the empty frames in the bottom box so there is not 2 together."checkerboard" style.

[beek4018]

Thanks Iddee,

Although trying not to replace the bottom box may be all for naught as I just discovered an 8" horizontal running crack in my current deep super.  Yeah, I'm hacked off.  It's not even been outside for a month at this point, and had three coats of paint which should be sufficient covering.

Aaarrgh.

[bens]

stress in the wood, it happens sometimes.  Is the crack in just one side?  If so I would put some staples across the crack and your bee's will do the rest by filling it with propolis if the crack is narrow enough.

[Kathyp]

i would put it under.  after digging into hives in walls etc, and seeing how they expand, putting a new box under seems to make sense to me.  iddee, i'd be interested in why you say above as you have dug into far more hives than i.

[iddee]

Kathy, top supering or bottom supering is about as controversial as queen excluders. Every beek has a different opinion. I don't think it matters near as much as his one handed manipulating of the hives. Both ways work fine, so with his handicap, I said take the easy way out.

Many times the difference is not worth the extra effort, not only in beekeeping.

[Kathyp]

good point!