Question about hive design

[samuils]

Hi, I am looking at 10 frame hive and it has one Deep hive body, one honey super and one shallow super.  Here is my question: What is the point of all these different sizes, Ok it says medium is for honey, but what is shallow for? And what would happen if I use all deeps that I have, and never use medium or shallow?

[rbinhood]

For most people it is just a matter of preference, the main thing is the weight factor.  A full deep is rather on the heavy side when it is full of honey, a medium can be easier on the back when moving a bunch of boxes. Another thing is having everything the same size like boxes and frames.  Maybe this will help answer your question.

[FRAMEshift]

The bees can use any size box for any purpose.   But moving heavy boxes is not easy for most people.  And it is much easier if you standardize on one size frame and use it for everything.

We use horizontal hives that hold 33 deep frames and we don't need to stack boxes.  But if I were using Langstroth boxes, I would go with all mediums in 8-frame boxes.  Those are much lighter and easier to manipulate.  You can even allocate resources by-the-box without having to go through each box frame by frame.  That can save lots of time and effort.