Spring Hive Reversal

[binglis]

Hello All,
I am a second year beekeeper (this year), and am told I should 'reverse my hive'. I have a honey super on top of two hive deeps that still has honey in it. The bees are also clustered in it as well.
How do I reverse the two deeps, leave the honey super on top, and get the bees in the bottom deep for spring?
Is there an easy way?
Should I have removed the honey super in the fall? (It was suggested in an article I read to leave a super on top for the winter...
Hope you are all well...
Bob

[bluegrass]

I think the general point of reversal is to get the cluster back to the bottom of the brood chamber. If they have enough stores in the brood chamber in the fall you don't need to leave a super on top. At this point you can just leave them the way it is and they will move down on their own, just takes longer than if you were to do a reversal. Do you have an excluder on? If so buy spring the queen has thined down enough to get through it. You could take the super off and shake the frames into the brood chamber if they don't have brood in it.

[jimmyo]

 We don't always reverse the brood boxes. The main thing is to make sure you have brood in the bottom box along with a couple frames of honey and pollen. Put the empty comb in the upper brood box.  We add 2 supers when the dandelions bloom.  Keep empty comb overhead so they don't swarm. 
JimmyO 

[tillie]

See Michael Bush's page:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopswitching

Linda T in Atlanta

[Michael Bush]

>and am told I should 'reverse my hive'.

"Just say no".