Bob Harrison wrote:

> 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.

Thanks Bob - I knew there had to be a simpler way than what I had come up
with.  It's too late for me to do it this year (I haven't started using
mediums yet so I have no drawn comb in that size frame, much less filled
with honey) but I can move them down to a single deep chamber in the spring,
and none at all the following spring, using the method you describe above.

Frank.
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The very act of seeking sets something in motion to meet us;
something in the universe, or in the unconscious responds as if
to an invitation.  - Jean Shinoda Bolen