Reversing Brood Boxes

[Blair Sampson]

Now that the weather is warming up in Nova Scotia we are thinking about reversing our brood boxes later this week. This will be our 1st time doing this. Is there anything we should be concerned about? Should all frames with brood  be place in the lower brood box. Any advise on the process will be much appreciated.

[Perry]

When reversing just make sure that if you already have any brood in the lower deep you will need to move those frames into the "new" lower box to ensure it remains close to all the other brood. If you don't, the brood in those frames will get separated from the bulk of the brood and could possibly get chilled if separated too much.

[vvand111]

Perry is there any positive or negative effect to placing frames from a 2ed tier deep brood box down with the lower brood box?

Lets say I have 3 frames of brood in the bottom and 3 frames in the top.  If I take the 3 from the top and combine in bottom for a total of 6 in bottom. Positive, negative,    

[Perry]

In my mind, anything you can do to consolidate the brood at this time of year is of benefit. Spreading it out can lead to possible brood chilling, especially now.
Usually any frames with brood on them in the lower box has most of it concentrated along the tops of the frames. If you simply reverse the deeps, that brood will then be away from the main body of the brood which now is in the lower box, and areas of empty comb between them.

[riverbee]

reversing hives:  make sure you are not separating the brood if the brood spans between two boxes. if you have brood spanning two boxes, leave alone and do not reverse and imho, don't move frames of brood around from box to box.  don't rearrange their nursery...........

i don't reverse my hives unless i need to. also i don't mess with moving brood frames around from box to box........the bees move up through winter months, and they move down come spring. bees know what to do and are more capable of figuring out their nursery and living situation than we are.