On 7-Jul-12, at 8:50 AM, Bill Greenrose wrote

Hi Bill and All
>
> Does anyone see any problems with doing this cutdown?  Some of the  
> boxes have box joints.  Do you think they will be weakened too  
> much, if cut partially through?

I sometimes cut both top and bottom of old deeps because the major  
damage is usually at the top.  I remove the nails near the cuts  
before running the box through the saw.  I try to keep the handholds  
as close to the centre as possible and cut using the box joints as a  
guide where possible.  If I cut the top off I have made a jig for my  
router and use it to cut frame rests.
>
> So, does anyone think that running four mediums would be overkill?   
> Would you recommend just three?  By the same token, should I  
> consider dropping down to just two deeps?

Ten years ago or so, a friend tried to convince me that single deep  
brood chambers are the way to go.  During our flight to Ireland that  
year I did some calculations and found out that he was right, a queen  
cannot lay up ten frames(in my case nine as I use nine frames in 10  
frame boxes) before the first few frames have emerging bees.  Most  
hives in Ontario are operated and wintered as singles.  One large  
beekeeper (500 hives) claims to operate and winter some of his hives  
in one single medium broodbox.  Most of my hives are singles and  
often find  the brood wall to wall.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm