Hello Frank & All,
 > Can anybody suggest a simpler  method?

Remove queen excluder and leave a couple mediums full of honey on top over
the winter Or add your medium boxes with foundation and feed in the fall
till full and drawn out.  You will find the bees have moved into the mediums
by spring. Get out early and remove your deep boxes from below before the
bees start using them. Strong hives will have moved the honey and pollen up
also most of the time.
To get medium supers which the queens  have laid eggs in back I do the
opposite. I place the mediums below and remove those in the spring.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri