Some folks around here who have made the switch to mediums-only have told me they like the resulting arrangement much better. In fact, a local commercial operator has remarked that outfitting the brood (or extracting) frames is much easier, as he no longer has to use cross-wires. He orders crimp-wired foundation without hooks, and just pops this into the grooved top&bottom bar frames. That's it. Since the foundation is fairly shallow, it tends to sit centered in the frame well by itself, without bowing. Sure beats wiring or expensive plastic foundation. The only things I'd be concerned about with mediums, other than the initial greater expense per-hive, is the greater division of the broodnest (more wood = barrier to queen?) and inter-connecting burr comb between the stories. A few decades ago Dr. C. L. Farrar favored a mediums-only system, using 3-5 boxes for the brood nest, and evidently had great success with this. In fact, he eventually incorporated it into his reknowned 2-queen systems. His hive bodies were made to hold 12-13 of the medium-depth combs, which comes close in total volume to a 10-frame deep. Could anyone comment on the burr-combing problem? Even with full-depth multiple brood-chambers, it seems the bees prefer to "connect up" the combs in the space between the stories. Not sure if this is a natural predisposition or more the result of an improper bee-space... Cheers, Joel Govostes Freeville, NY