a Peter Borst snip.. 

Most of the commercial beekeepers I have met use nine frames in a ten frame hive. Initially, this might look like way too much space, but over time, the frames get quite comfortable with it. Instead of the frames touching wood to wood, a layer of wax and propolis accumulates between them providing a flexible spacer that is better than anything we could have designed. 

my comments...
I would say all the commercial folks I have worked for or known run what works out to 9 frames in the bottom deep < this may include a feeder of some size so the real number may be 8 or 9.  This can speed up inspection significantly but here it also adds just a bit of ventilation up thru the box < I would guess in transport mode this is one advantage of 9 frames that folks may overlook.  All frames are started out in Lang size boxes with 10 frames to the box but once the comb is fully drawn one frame gets removed.  It does get very hot here in Central Texas and I have witnessed boxes with 10 frames literally melt down so the net effect of just that tad bit extra ventilation can be significant.

As to reversing.... some of my bottoms are nailed on but a hammer corrects that problem.  Again the primary two reason I reverse is 1) it lets me KNOW exactly how much (or not) is in the bottom box and 2) without this manipulation in places where you have shb or wax moth these hives would perish in very short order < most times when either pest gets a start in the bottom of the nest the bees in the box will abscond.  I would guess based on the day and night time temperatures at the time of the year when I reverse there is very little of a positive temperature effect on brood rearing.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html