I have also found that the queens do not usually lay in the deep cells
(using 8 frames per 10-fr size super).
 
Late in the season I will sometimes find drone brood up in the supers,
probably from laying workers up there.  The bottom-most super (above the
brood chambers) will sometimes have brood in the center combs if the nectar
flow has not provided enough pressure to keep the queen way down.  It is
not common, however.  I just group the combs containing brood into empty
supers and place them somewhere in a stack of well-filled supers for the
brood to emerge and be replaced by honey.  This seems to do the trick.
 
 
>This business of aiming for fat combs in supers is a good one, it greatly
>reducing the amount of
>work in extracting the same volume of honey.
>
>When I first started I used Hoffman type spacing frames in supers, but now
>I use the old fasioned
>wide metal ends. The reason is that you can stagger the end lugs (one in
>one out) to give about 14
>frames per super, a very quick lining up of the ends, (and removal of
>extras to other hives) then
>gives the 8 frames per super. The only problem is if there is a flow on
>and you forget to change at
>the critical point, and you end up with lot of wee skinny combs which are
>mostly wax.
>
>The added advantage of this is also that after a season or two, when you
>have nice big fat combs,
>you can throw away your queen excluders, because the queen hates to lay
>eggs in these cells (they
>are too deep), this makes the bees even more productive, and also happier.
>
>Steve
>Kilspindie