Is there a reason why there are no square hives? Or at least none that I have seen.
The hives that I use are square (50cm x 50cm)
(http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t596/Tracy_Spear/IMG_0051_zpse21988d3.jpg) (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Spear/media/IMG_0051_zpse21988d3.jpg.html)
So how many Frames do you use?
This has already been done and ran out of popularity about 60 years ago look up Dadant hive. Some may call it a Jimbo hive
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
I've moved all my bees into my Dadant hives. The dadant hives are just starting to gain popularity here in Germany - most people use Zander hives. The brood chamber is about 2x taller than the honey supers and takes 12 frames. The honey supers that I have have built in spacers for 10 frames. This system works very well for me as I have only one brood chamber to inspect and the supers are not too heavy for me to lift - I do have to span my son in to help me carry the supers with the full frames for harvesting.
I have several and have had a least one since about 1976, but they are hard to lift... The Dadant hive was square and wide enough for 12 frames but he put 11 in them and spaced them out... which I think is a very bad arrangement as you end up with fat combs that are hard to manage.
The British Standard hives are square as are the Warre'.