By restricting the bees to only a single deep, they quickly crowd the cavity,
and then for the rest of the season swarm again and again, turning excess
energy into kids rather than honey.

Comment:

The important question is whether the same results could be achieved by simply dividing the colony every time they reached a certain critical mass. And, what would that point be? For example, once they had brood in six of the nine or so combs, one could make a split. Then, the colonies probably would not swarm and their progeny would be retained instead of being sent to the woods (or to be collected by some other beekeeper). 

And what would this lead to? Infinitely increasing the size of the apiary? Even if you could sell off the splits, at some point in the season the demand would dry up, and their value would fall below cost. It would be a complicated system of management which may involve keeping them weak enough to not swarm, nor build up varroa -- and yet strong enough to survive through the off season. And how much honey mediocre colonies would produce is anyone's guess.

Granted, the goal of this study is survival, not production. Still, one wonders if it could be shoehorned into a profitable scheme. 

PLB

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