> 
> Hey Charles
> I don't disagree with you at all. I am just asking for something more than
> "it seems to work for me." It is very possible that a one story brood nest
> set-up is better, I just haven't seen evidence of it, other than folks
> doing it. I suspect a copy-cat effect, but whatever.

I am sure that there is a copy cat effect.  We may all be prone to it,
except me of course.

However much of what we do is for convenience and ease of operation. We use
moveable frame hives because of their ease of manipulation, rather than log
hives.  Excluders allow us to remove honey a super at a time, and make
finding queens much easier; most of the time.

Back when the 'Armstrong' method of shifting was the go, and trucks were
small and roads rough, it was normal to remove most of the honey, even out
of the brood box.  One outfit I worked for that started after WW1 lightened
off the wood ware by having half inch sides.  That allowed running 10 frames
in the brood easily, but they ran 8 in the super for ease of uncapping with
a hand knife.  It was once normal to extract on site, either in a tent or a
caravan.   As roads became better and extracting machinery larger and more
sophisticated, and beds more comfortable, central plants are the norm in
most places.

Geoff Manning

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