Splitting hives and shifting box sizes = Confused Me

[TwoHoneys]

All my hives are deep-box hives...I'm plotting to move to all mediums (and I have 5 medium supers and all their foundationless frames ready to go).

I'd like to split my strongest hive (I've never done splits before)...HOWEVER...I can't figure out how to make splits from deep boxes to medium nucs. It seems to me that I can only generate deep splits from deep boxes...which doesn't exactly help transition me to medium. And I'm not at all crazy about multiplying more deeps. Should I simply start medium-boxed colonies from bees I order in the Spring? I'd rather propagate my own. This has me completely befuddled.

[iddee]

Super your single deep hives with mediums Now. If needed, add another medium before winter. When Spring comes, the queen will be laying in the mediums. Use 5 frames in each split, to make twice as many medium nucs as you have drawn supers to start. Let them raise their own queens or buy queens and install.

[tillie]

Medium frame, deep box!!! :-\ :-\ :-\

[TwoHoneys]

I'm trying my darndest to follow you, Iddee.

Super your single deep hives with mediums Now. If needed, add another medium before winter.

First question: My hives are currently 2 deeps tall. Do you mean I should split the deeps now and put a medium on each of the newly split deeps? That gives me one deep and one medium per hive.

Or do you mean put a medium on each 2 deep stack and wait until Spring to make the splits? Which would give me two deeps and one medium per hive over the winter.

Second question: My medium boxes don't have drawn comb in them yet. Do you think they'll have enough time to draw comb, etc if I add a medium super to the stack tomorrow? They're sure not doing much right now. They're on vacation.

Medium frame, deep box!!! :-\ :-\ :-\

Tillie, that cracks me up. But it works, yes?

[iddee]

Your first posts did not say whether you had singles or doubles, so I assumed you had both. It really doesn't matter. I would add a super to a couple of them and see if they draw them. If they do, then use them in the spring. If not, remove them until spring, then use them for splits when they are drawn. Tillie also has a workable way, but in your case, you would have to have 5 empty frames in each of 2 mediums, and five deep frames with brood, honey, and pollen beside them. They would continue to draw the deeps into jumbo frames, which could later be trimmed.

[annette]

I transitioned from deeps to mediums twice. Had my medium super above the deep

Both times I made sure the queen was up above in the medium super  then I placed a queen excluder between the deep and the medium. When all the brood was born out in the deep, I just removed the deep.  To utilize any deep frames, I cut them down to medium size and just used them in the mediums.

Hope this doesn't sound confusing.

[greenbtree]

Tillie - they did it so neatly!!  I know it won't help much now, but I put on a medium that had been used as a honey super after extraction so the bees could clean it out.  Got busy, checked it a few days later than expected - BAM full of brood.  Needless to say it is now part of the hive.  Next year I think you will be able to transition pretty easily.

JC

[tillie]

I run all mediums at home.  This is at a community garden hive at the Blue Heron Preserve.  The hive went queenless so I brought a frame of brood and eggs from home and of course, it was a medium.  That was back in April.  I put the frame into the bottom box which was a deep and forgot about it. 

The bees made their queen and she has obviously been laying well and they built out the medium frame to fit the box - we pulled this for the first time this past weekend during an inspection - such a hoot to see how well they had used the space.  The frame has capped brood, open brood, drone brood, a good brood pattern, an open queen cup, pollen and honey - terrific teaching frame despite the added comb!

Linda in Atlanta

[TwoHoneys]

Okay, my friends. I now have my plan---within a day or two, I'll super my deeps with mediums and wait for comb. Thanks for hanging with me as I figure this out, Iddee.

And, Annette, it's all confusing to me. Which is one reason I love it. Frankly, I had noooo idea this stuff would challenge me to this extent. I thought beekeeping was a passive sort of thing. You know...a "pasttime." In fact...it's more like a "constant time." The fact that it occupies my mind and my imagination the way it does is a real treat.

Rather than cutting down the deep, heavy equipment I'm phasing out of my home hives, I'm thinking of moving all the deeps and their bees to a farm we have south of Lexington, KY...about 120 miles from me. I won't see (or lift) them there very often...maybe once every 6-8 weeks.

Liz

[annette]

Well when I got into beekeeping, the guy who turned me on said "OH it is so easy, you just add boxes on top when they fill up the boxes with honey" and he said "you will get about 100 lbs of honey from each hive"

Well, it is way different from that and out here where I live, I am happy to get 15-20 lbs of honey if I am lucky (last year nothing)

It is definitely challenging, but I love it.

[Kathyp]

 :-D

but this year will be good, won't it Annette?

[annette]

So far so good, but I never count my chickens before they hatch :-D :-D