Reversing the deeps (brood boxes)

[D1ckyd00]

Hello Im new into beekeeping and I have been doing some reading, and I would like some opinions or info on reversing the deeps.

From what I have read is that when you add a new deep you should put it on the top of the intial deep and then reverse them after the queen has started laying in the upper deep.  Am I reading this correctly or am I misunderstanding.

Thank you for your opinions and info.

Dickydoo

[pistolpete]

There was a pretty good discussion on this a couple of months ago.   There is no general agreement on this.  Basically do it if the bees need it..  If there is a honey cap over the brood in the top box, then it's a bad idea to reverse.  If you have a brood area that spans the two deeps, then it's also a poor idea to break it up.    Reversing is usually done in the spring when bees are only in the top of the two boxes.

[D1ckyd00]

Ok thank you now Im understanding do it in the spring if at all.

Dickydoo

[tbonekel]

I went into this spring with bees in one deep.  As they grew, I just added the second deep on top and the queen eventually moved up. Now she goes between the deeps looking for empty cells to lay in. I will probably do the reversing next spring as well.

[Bsweet]

Normally done in the spring "if needed". Some queens get in the upper deep and stay there and the hive may swarm due to over crowding even thou the lower box is empty. The boxs are reversed to give her room to move up. Some keeps reverse and some don't. Jim

[riverbee]

"From what I have read is that when you add a new deep you should put it on the top of the intial deep and then reverse them after the queen has started laying in the upper deep.  Am I reading this correctly or am I misunderstanding."

dd, correct, when you add a new deep, set it on top, but there is no need to reverse the boxes in a new hive, the queen will move up and down.  as others have said, reversing is normally done in the spring of the year.  also, as pete mentioned, one must be careful not to reverse hives with brood in both boxes.

i am not one to reverse my hives in spring, unless the queen does not move down. 

[GLOCK]

I do it all my hives in spring it's part of my SPM  and it works for me I even have one hive the queen just won't lay in the bottom box after 2 Reversing she seems to settled in but I have not checked on her since Reversing last time. But no swarms yet and last year I had none out of 10 DBL deeps.
Good luck. Just try it and see if it works for you   will learn your own way of doing things as time go's on.

[LazyBkpr]

I use mediums so have three boxes. Reversing lets me clean everything and swap in some new frames and pull old ones. This gives me frames to start nucs or hives, puts the cluster at the bottom and opens the brood chamber to help restrict the desire to swarm until I can get queens to do splits.