Thanks to all who wrote me privately or publicly about the use of shallow
brood chambers.  Had I done the math I'd have realized myself that it would
take 3 mediums, not three shallows to equal the space available in 2 deeps.

Thanks also to the person who pointed out that honey produced while the hive
was medicated is not good for human consumption.  I knew that, but had not
considered it in this context and might have made a mistake there.

I will move away from the dual deep brood chamber configuration this coming
spring.  I am still thinking about a configuration net yet mentioned here: A
deep and two shallows.  This would suit my purposes just fine as I never
lift the bottom chamber anyhow.  Then I remembered reading about people
rotating the brood chambers in the spring.  Obviously if I have to rotate
them then having a deep in the mix does achieve my goal of lightening the
lifting.

I couldn't remember why the rotation was done, so I looked up it up and
found the following explanation in one of my books.  It said that the queen
likes to move up as she lays rather than down. By spring, the book says, the
brood nest will be in the upper chamber, and reversing them allows further
movement in an upwards direction, discouraging swarming.

I'm not convinced that this is so, but it seems, from my perspective of
little knowledge and less experience, to conflict with two other things I
have learned.  One is that I started these colonies from nucs, in single
brood boxes.  When I added the second they could have moved the nest up into
it, but they stayed down below, and filled the top brood chamber with honey.

Secondly, I have read that left to their own devices (IE in the wild) the
bees will move the nest downwards starting at the top and filling in with
honey behind the nest.

My question for the list then is whether people do tend to rotate their
brood boxes and why.  Is brood box rotation practiced by some, many, or most
beekeepers?

(I've learned enough from this list to know that "None" and "All" are almost
certainly not valid answers to the question!)

Frank.
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The very act of seeking sets something in motion to meet us;
something in the universe, or in the unconscious responds as if
to an invitation.  - Jean Shinoda Bolen