Elizabeth:
I know what you mean!  I am a retired scientist who built the atomic bombs to
end World War II; and beekeeping is my consuming hobby, always done
scientifically.
After strokes three years ago, I cut back from 100+ colonies to just 20 here
in my back yard "to keep my 66 year old hobby going".  I have difficulty
walking now, so I go to them on my golf cart, work slowly, but deliberately.
Today, I started 6 new colonies with new queens that I exhibit at the famous
Montgomery County Fair in August.

Fifteen years ago when I still strong and a 100 pound deep body of honey and
bees was not too heavy, I became very upset about "never having the right
size frame
when I wanted to switch frames about.  I couldn't put a deep frame in a super
body, and the bees built burr comb on the bottom of a super frame if it was
put in a deep body.  These sizes are not "ordained by God" and the bees don't
know the difference,
so why not use one size body for EVERYTHING - brood, honey, and even section
honey?  I selected the ILLINOIS size, called the MEDIUM size of 6 5/8", and
switched
135 colonies from a combination of deep, medium, and shallow bodies into
nothing but the Illinois (medium) size.  I use 3 Illinois in place of 2 Deeps
for brood chambers, and use only that size for extracted honey, cut comb
honey and even 4x4
square section comb honey.  The heaviest body is one full of capped honey and
weighs about 50-55 pounds.

As far as the other tedious work is concerned, even though i "hate" plastic
and think of it as cheap Japanese junk (after all, I am old),  Dadant came
out with foundation named Plasticell, and I tried it.  I wish they had had it
66 years ago!  You don't have to wire it in, it won't sag, you can't break it
if you tried, and if the bees build drone comb on it, you scrape that off
with a hive tool, give it back to the bees, and they will rebuild it with
pretty worker size comb.

After my success, Ann Harman switched too.  Many of the new beekeepers that
both of us teach FREE OF CHARGE start their beekeeping using all Illinois.

I have attached an article I wrote about this years ago to this e-mail.  I
hope you can open it.  It is written on my Apple computer.

My writings are read FREE by about 4-5000 beekeepers each month and are
called George's PINK PAGES.  Their purpose is singular: to UPGRADE beeHAVERS
into
beeKEEPERS.  You can find them published on two different WEB sites, one in
Maine
and the other in Florida.  The addresses are:

http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/        click the image at lower right
http://www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html

I hope I have helped.
        George Imirie



                                GET SMART  and  SAVE YOUR BACK!
                                                   plus
       ENJOY HAVING JUST ONE SIZE FRAME IN YOUR COLONY!

          Ever since Langstroth designed our modern day hive, that deep body regardless of whether it is filled with honey or brood, is heavy.  During these past 140 years since Langstroth designed the hive,  numerous people have created different size boxes,  called "supers", primarily to reduce that heavy weight of 10 deep frames as we do colony manipulations.  As a scientist, for years I asked myself  "What is so sacred about the size of the Langstroth  9 5/8" deep hive body?"  Further, and much more important, when you use a deep body for the brood chamber, and either 6 5/8" medium  [Illinois] and/or 5 11/16" shallow bodies for supers, you are faced with different size frames that are non-interchangeable!  I am positive that if you have been keeping bees more than two years,  the fact that your frames could not be inerchanged has frustrated you more than once.
Perhaps, cussing the situation and feeling defeated, you put a shallow frame down in the deep body; but when you tried to remedy the problem the following weekend, the queen had layed lots of eggs in the frame and the nest builders had built 3 inches of burr comb on the frame lower bar!  Oh, what a mess!
           Fifteen years ago, having been frustrated with these different size frames for almost 50 years (since 1933) plus getting older so the weight of deep bodies was bothering me, I decided: "Enough is enough, I am going to switch my total operation to all one size body and frame --- ILLINOIS!  I wish I had done this over 50 years ago!!!  A deep body filled with honey weighs about 90 pounds, whereas an Illinois body  filled with honey weighs 60 pounds.
           But let's talk about the brood chamber area, because "that is where the action is", or, as I teach, "A good beekeeper pays very little attention to the supers, because if he has everything 'under control' in the brood area, the honey in the supers will take care of itself"  That is lesson #23, so i better get back to ALL ONE SIZE BODIES AND FRAMES - ILLINOIS.  A sheet of deep foudation is 8 1/2" tall, or two of them are 17' tall (most beekeepers use two deep bodies for brood chamber space).  A sheet of Illinois foundation is 5 5/8" tall, or three 
of them are 16 7/8" tall - just 1/8" less than 2 deeps!   Three Illinois frames has 99.3% of the space of two deep frames!  I have explained the weight advantage, but just think about all the advantages of one size frame:  ease of reversing without breaking the cluster, swarm control of moving frames of capped brood up into the supers and moving empty drawn comb frames from supers down into the brood chamber ready for the queen to lay eggs, moving damaged frames or drone size cell frames up into the super area, and just the ease of handling this smaller frame.
          Most of you are interested in frames of honey, extracted, cut-comb, chunk, and even square section or Ross Round.  I use the Illinios frame for ALL!  My cut-comb boxes and my wig-wam jars of chunk honey are both better filled full by cutting from Illinios frames than shallow frames.  (I eat the leftovers as I cut to give me 'instant energy').  For nosgalgia reasons, I still make some square wooden section honey by putting a 1/2"spacer on the frame bottom bar so the wood sections fit the frame nicely plus fence support bars on the super ends.  Wood Sections are a thing of the past, but it brings back 65 years of memories.
           I have convinced a number of beginners to use all Illinois and they love it.  A few of the older men have converted and, like me, sorry they didn't do it earlier.  If I could live another 50 years, i would bet many of the smarter beekeepers will go in this direction.
           IF you have drawn comb Illinois frames, late winter and early spring is the time to convert.  Just put an Illinois of drawn comb on TOP of your two deeps in February, provide the bees with a little 1:1 sugar syrup 
to supply nectar substitute for the brood the queen will lay in the frames, remove the bottom deep when it is empty, add another drawn comb Illinois on top, and finally the third and by that time theb second deep should be empty and permanently remove it.  If you do NOT have Illinois drawn comb, your bees will have to make 30 frames of it on nectar flows over top of the queen excluder with NO OTHER supers, and then during the summer, 
isolate the queen away from deep bodies by using excluders to confine her to the freshly made drawn Illinois comb.  If you are confused and I am not available,  ASK ONE OF THE MASTER BEEKEEPERS IN YOUR AREA.  In fact, depend on your MASTER BEEKEEPERS for sound advice!