Reducing from two to one deep for overwintering?

[davmal]

Should I reduce this queenright hive from two deeps down to one deep?

I have a two-deep, 10-frame hive that used to be one of my strongest. But now the colony is weak. It has not taken any 2:1 over the past two weeks, so I stopped feeding yesterday. The top box now has lots of bees with a modest amount of capped brood in the center frames. There is a honey line above the brood. These brood frames are flanked by a good amount of capped honey. The bottom deep is largely made up of empty comb, but it also has a lot of bees. There is some scattered capped brood in the bottom, but I do not think it is alive. I'm thinking I should remove the bottom deep all together, put all bees in the single remaining deep, and then be prepared to provide emergency feed come January or so. Might it make it? I live in Maryland, USA.

[BeeMaster2]

Should I reduce this queenright hive from two deeps down to one deep?

I have a two-deep, 10-frame hive that used to be one of my strongest. But now the colony is weak. It has not taken any 2:1 over the past two weeks, so I stopped feeding yesterday. The top box now has lots of bees with a modest amount of capped brood in the center frames. There is a honey line above the brood. These brood frames are flanked by a good amount of capped honey. The bottom deep is largely made up of empty comb, but it also has a lot of bees. There is some scattered capped brood in the bottom, but I do not think it is alive. I'm thinking I should remove the bottom deep all together, put all bees in the single remaining deep, and then be prepared to provide emergency feed come January or so. Might it make it? I live in Maryland, USA.

It is allfully late for where you are to be rearranging the hive. I would leave them the way they are. 2 deeps is not  abnormal for your area. If there is no food in the bottom deep you could do it but it also might help buffer wind blown in the bottom.
Jim

[BlueBee]

I would agree with Jim using the following logic.  A wood hive provides virtually no insulation value, so an extra box on the bottom isn't going to make the stack any colder than just a single deep.  Some would argue the dead air space of the bottom box would provide some measure of insulation under the bees, but that isn't where most of the heat is lost.  While 2 wood deeps don't have much effect on insulation, the two boxes would double your solar gains on sunny days; which could be substantial and a good thing.  I would leave the bees be at this point....provided there is honey in that top box.

As a side note, when I want to compact a hive down for winter (in insulated foam boxes) I remove the supers and just put an empty super or half box over my bottom wintering box (I just use one box).  That extra space gives room for the extra bees to hang out as they get re-situated into the smaller wintering space and as some of the fall bees die out.  I remove that top spacer when we get a weather break in November and the bees can fly. 

[OldMech]

  hrm.. some good advice..
   I use mediums, and have already reduced a couple hives from three to two boxes..  In two other instances where I felt that there were not enough bees to handle two boxes I put them into nucs at a 5 over 5 configuration, the honey they had stored went above them and on the outside walls of the brood chamber. Smaller space to deal with and ALL the resources they had gathered at the time of reducing them.
   Some might say they should have been combined.. but each of these were late July cut outs and just didnt have the time to rebound. (No fall flow at all) I want to give them a chance in the spring.. I really like the feral genetics, so will give them a chance to strut their stuff come spring.