Brood in supers

[dfizer]

As I was inspecting a hive that has 2 deeps below a super (this is how the hive over wintered) I noticed that there is a lot of brood up in the honey super... How do I get the bees to use the bottom deeps for brood rearing?  I have already reversed the top and bottom deeps since the bottom deep was basically completely empty.  There were very few bees if any in the bottom deep coming outta the winter and they are occupying both deeps now at least....
Thoughts? 
My first thought is to put a queen excluder between the deeps and super after making sure the queen is no longer in the super but for how long do I need to leave the queen excluder in there?
The first few years of beekeeping I used queen excluders and found that they greatly reduced the amount of honey stored in the supers as well as made my hives very swarmy! 
Any advice would be appreciated!
David

[RHBee]

David as I understand it, the bees build downward as the year progresses. I'm seeing this happen here now. The ability to shift frames around is the reason that I'm transitioning to all mefiums.

[dfizer]

I too have considered going to all mediums however at this point it's not my current condition.  I am looking for advice specifically pertaining to my current conundrum.  I think the only way to solve this is via the use of a queen excluder and a thorough inspection of the deeps. 
I will be making sure there is plenty of room in the deeps to allow for brood rearing.  I guess there's a side of me that's thankful that they continued up to the super.  It beats the alternative (swarming)
David

[RHBee]

If you want immediate results the excluder is the only option I know of. Shake the bees off the medium frames, install the excluder. All I was saying previously was that left alone they should move down as the year progresses.

[BlueBee]

Sometimes the bees kind of get stuck in a box and seem resistant to move up or down to another box until the population jumps.  I have had some hives that didn’t want to move down to the bottom deep too.  They used it for a pollen store. 

Sounds like RHBee has about the quickest solution.  You can always try to move bees into the next box by moving some frames of brood up/down, but you said the brood was in mediums and you want to get them to deeps.  Yeah you can move some mediums into a deep box, but that can get messy as they try to add comb to the bottom of the mediums.   

[Vance G]

Gently shake all the bees off the medium frames or catch the queen whichever comes first.  Set the medium on top over a queen excluder and wait at most 21 days and you problem is solved.  This is why we do not winter with a super on. 

[dfizer]

Vance -
I learned my lesson about wintering over with a super on however it was where all the honey was... my bees had not stored any in the top deep as it was full of brood.  The bottom deep was basically empty since I had not reversed the deeps in the spring.  Perhaps I put the super on too early last year... in any event, my colony made it through the winter however now I need the brood out of the super.  I will be utilizing an excluder - this should solve the problem.
I will not be allowing the super to stay on this year that's for sure. 
David

[Kathyp]

are you looking to take honey now?  if not, you can wait.  they eat up into the honey in the spring and move down to store honey above in the fall.

  one of the things you  might want to check is if you divided the hive with honey when you swapped boxes.  what's going on in the bottom box now??  if they have a bunch of honey on the bottom or between the boxes, they might not move down as easily.

[dfizer]

I will be opening up the hive tonight.  I expect to find exactly that Kathy - that I split the brood box leaving the super with brood on top of the empty box in the middle and the rest of the brood in the bottom box.  I do plan to locate the queen if possible.  Once located I'll make sure she is in the brood chamber below the super then put an exculder on.  There are so many bees that locating her may not be possible therefore I may just resort to shaking all the bees off the super frames - into the deep hive bodies then putting the excluder on.  Either way, I should accomplish what I am after - which is honey in the supers and brood/honey in the deeps.
David