running one large and rest supers

[goodeva]

For a couple years I have been starting my hives with one large hive body and then stacking supers after that. I have read through the post that running all mediums works very well. Should I switch them out to mediums or continue this method? I am not using a excluder.

[Apis629]

I just have one deep for the brood nest and the bees needs, then medium supers.  I do use an excluder, for probably half the year.  As for cutting them down, I'm not sure if that's completely necessary, it all depends on your management scheme.  If you're not going to use excluders, however, it may be necessary to go to all mediums just to be able to switch around frames of brood or pollen.

[Brian D. Bray]

I do my beekeeping from a wheelchair so I have to use shallows in 8 frame throughout due to physical limitations.  It's harder to lift, etc., from a sitting position and then there's age.  
I hate queen excluders and use them only in very limited situations.  Try using a slatted rack instead, I find they work pretty well as a queen excluder and it allows the bees expansion room for those hot days when bees are prone to hang on the outside of the hive.  I make my own so that the slats run the same direction as the frames and the mites fall through to the grease board (screen bottoms).  
Only one brood box seems a little greedy from the harvest standpoint.  Use three or 4 shallows then the slatted rack then the supers intended for harvesting.  The bees seem to winter better, build up quicker in the spring, and using a slatted rack above and below the brood chambers seems to restrain their tendency to swarm (some hives won't swarm yearly under this configuration).
A big strong hive will produce much more honey than a smaller one so one years investment into increasing the brood chambers more than pays off in later years with increased production.

[Apis629]

I don't harvest all the supers!  I always have one on "in reserve" for their own supply.  So, throught the year, they have the deep brood chamber, and one medium super.  The only reason I keep the queen out of it is, because, that way there's a super FULL of honey and pollen for all year 'round.  I will, ocasionally, swap them a super full of honey from a more recent flow, given, they never seem to be able to eat that much without more comming in.

[Michael Bush]

>For a couple years I have been starting my hives with one large hive body and then stacking supers after that. I have read through the post that running all mediums works very well. Should I switch them out to mediums or continue this method? I am not using a excluder.

Uniform frame size.

The frame is the basic element of a modern bee hive. Even if you have various sized boxes (as far as the number of frames they hold) if the frames are all the same depth you can put them in any of your boxes.

Having a uniform frame size has simplified my life. If all your frames are the same size you have a lot of advantages.

You can put anything currently in the hive anywhere else it's needed.

For instance:

1) You can put brood up a box to "bait" the bees up. This is useful without an excluder (I don't use excluders) but it's especially useful if you really want to use an excluder. A couple of frames of brood above the excluder (leaving the queen and the rest of the brood below) really motivates the bees to cross the excluder and start working the next box above it.

2) You can put honey combs in for food wherever you need it. I like this for making sure nucs don't starve without the robbing that feeding often starts, or bulking up the stores of a light hive in the fall.

3) You can unclog a brood nest by moving pollen or honey up a box or even a few frames of brood up a box to make room in the brood nest to prevent swarming. If you don't have all the same size, where will you put these frames?

4) You can run an unlimited brood nest with no excluder and if there is brood anywhere you can move it anywhere else. You're not stuck with a bunch of brood in a medium that you can't move down to your deep brood chamber. The advantage of the unlimited brood nest is the queen isn't limited to one or two brood boxes, but can be laying in three or four. Probably not four deeps, but probably in four mediums.

I cut all my deeps down to mediums.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeseightframemedium.htm