> Please do comment on your practice, Wright's approach and my thoughts. I'm just a hobbyist with currently 6 hives, consolidated from 9 over the summer. 

I don't do this, preferring to let the bees organize the nest as they see fit, but I have worked with hives managed this way belonging to other people. The usual plan is to run 9 frames in a ten frame hive, put the excluder over the first story. As far as supering goes, there have been numerous studies which show that putting supers on top as needed is just as effective as under-supering and a lot less work. 

PLB

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