Here in Missouri,  I use mediums for both brood and supering, running 3
boxes for brood nest. I still have some of the 5 in supers and then there
are the comb honey supers.  I use the queen excluder between nest and
supers (except for the comb honey stands). I also look for the top of the
egg ring to reach the wood of the topbar in the 3 center frames of the nest
(as someone mentioned earlier) and place wood framed excluders (tho I don't
think the type excluder matters) above this box.  If there is a honey ring
below the topbars of the top box containing the nest at the time I place
the excluder and supers, I will reverse the top two boxes splitting the
nest and creating the nest edge that I seek. The displacement of the
circular nest into half globes stacked is a temporary thing and does not
seem to hurt the bees ability to tend all of the larva this late in the
spring (first of April, redbud bloom or later on lesser colonies).  This
has been working pretty well for me the last few years.  I think keeping an
eye on this edge between honey stores and the top of the nest is an easy
way to determine the mindset of the colony as it relates to swarming. If I
keep this edge at this location and present space above the excluder, the
swarm impulse does not seem to materialize. There are advantages to running
mediums as brood boxes other than just the weight issue, though they do
have a few drawbacks as well.

Roger

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