Bill wrote:

"Time is not an issue but heavy lifting is. I want to be gentle on the new
hips for about a year, which means until mid summer.

I do have a plan but am interested in other options."

Here's another option: spend the winter building top bar hives and transfer  your bees to them in the Spring by shook swarms.  With the TBH everything is at waist height and the heaviest thing you lift is one comb.  The entrance should be at the sunny end and you work from the rear or the side so the bees don't know you're there and you won't need a smoker.
There are various designs but I prefer my own: a semi-circular profile with the top bars forming the diameter  The bars should be the same length as your standard frames for ease of taking nuclei etc.  The semi-circular design allows the bees to build their comb in their preferred U shape.  They tend to rear their brood towards the front of the hive and place their stores at the rear.  They aren't as productive as standard hives but much of the surplus honey can be taken and sold as cut comb, which sells at twice the price of honey in the jar.  If you remove one bar and spread the rest at the right time of year, at your next visit you can take a crop of propolis that the bees will have used to fill the gaps.
I don't normally feed my hives and take my harvest from the TBHs in the Spring when the dandelions and willows are in flower, knowing that what I steal is truly surplus to their requirements and not partially recycled sugar.  At that time of year most of your local competitors will have sold out and there will be a demand for 'natural' honey from hay fever sufferers.
Being tight fisted, I usually build my TBHs from recycled pallet planks for free.  The top bars are an inch and 3/8ths wide.  I run a bead of wax down the centre with the aid of a soldering iron to get them started on the right lines. Alternatives are to bevel the underside of the bar or to add a strip of wood coated in wax.If, having shaken a swarm, you want to make use of the brood from the hive you can cut it out and tie it under the top bars with loops of string. Usually the bees will attach the comb to the bars with wax before they finish eating through the string.
Have fun!
Chris

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