First you need to go into your account in the IDE and see what zigbee channel your SmartThings hub is using. If you are lucky, it will be one of the subset of channels which can also be used by the hue bridge: 11, 15, 20, or 25. In that case, you will be able to move the bulbs to the bridge in one of several ways.
If you are unlucky, it will be one of the subset of channels which is not used by the hue bridge, such as 14. In that case, yes, you will have to get a different device in order to reset them before you can add them to a Hue bridge.
The zigbee channel that your smartthings hub uses is assigned at random When you first set up your account, which is why different people will report different results and methods in the forums. It all depends on what Zigbee channel their particular hub was randomly assigned to.
I think you will be very happy once you get the bulbs moved over to the bridge. Not only does this give you additional functional possibilities, but it removes any problems associated with your other zigbee devices trying to use a Hue bulb as a repeater. The bulbs repeat fine for each other, but can drop messages from other devices. Bulbs attached to a hue bridge form their own mini network, so this problem does not arise.