So, a little background here...
I'm living in zone 7b I believe, have only 1 hive, and February is when things start to warm up. It's when Red Maple starts to bloom along with my mother's peach tree, but it's a tricky month too. Last year it got into the 70's and got my VERY first hive (that I got in May of 2018) working in the first week... THEN it dropped to below freezing and froze out my girls. I had to get a new package, giving them the old frames. Now the new colony is in a 2 deep setup, and the cluster looks strong.
That being said, with the frames in the bottom box being a little over a year old, some of them from last I've seen are quite brown in color and drawn out somewhat irregular, I was contemplating on something. In anticipation of a failed winterization, I got 10 frames worth of BetterComb, by the company Better Bee. I would get a new bee package and provide them with 10 empty frames in the bottom deep, giving them the leftovers in the top box.
For those that don't know what it is, it's molded wax honey combs made with wax of practically the same chemical makeup as actual bee's wax. They even have the same upward tilt in the cells as naturally drawn comb. (picture below)
Now, SHOULD my bees live though the deceptive month of February, and go into spring unharmed... with how old, brown, and irregular the bottom box's frames are, I had contemplated pulling the top box off, setting the queen aside, pulling out all the old frames, putting in the BetterComb frames, releasing the queen into the bottom box, and putting an excluder down to get her to lay down there only, before putting the second box back on top. Would that cause any complications? Should I put the BetterComb in the top box?
Right-click and "view image" to see full size pic properly.