> I don't remember who said it 
> or where, but " number of frames 
> should be consistent in each 
> box(brood and honey) from 
> bottom to top of  hive, so that 
> the spaces line up providing 
> improved ventilation". 

This would be true if colonies were able to make excessive bridge comb, and
close the gaps between each top bar and the bottom bar above, but this would
then be a hive that would be inspectable only through the use of a
piano-wire "saw" pulled between each box to cut all that comb apart.

The good news is that airflow is not much impeded by frame offsets in the
transition between 10-frame and 9-frame boxes, or even between 11-frame and
9-frame.

There is a potential significant problem posed by the use of the older metal
queen excluders if they separate a 10-frame brood chamber from a 9-frame
bottommost honey super, as the queen excluder would block some spaces from
being bee spaces.  (Lay a queen excluder on the top bars of a 10-frame box,
and then on the bottom bars of a 9-frame box, and take some photos so you
can overlay them in Photoshop, and you'll see.)

Regardless, the combs feral bees make are a warren of dead-ends and
non-planar arrangements, and both bottom and top vents are exceedingly rare.
Somehow, they are able to ventilate sufficiently to evaporate nectar into
honey only inches away from where they are incubating brood within tight
limits of temperature and humidity.

 

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