>Yeah, thats a question I haven't answered either, do I go with the medium or deep boxes, do I go with the 8 frame or the 10 frame boxes.
The real question is: "how much do you want to lift?"
Standard 10 Frame boxes
Name(s) Depth Weight full of honey Uses
Jumbo, Dadant Deep 11 5/8" 100 - 110 pounds Brood
Deep, Langstroth Deep 9 5/8" 80 - 90 pounds Brood & Ext
Western Bee Supply 7 5/8" 70 - 80 pounds Brood & Ext
Medium, Illinois, 3/4 6 5/8" 60 - 70 pounds Brood & Ext & Cmb
Shallow 5 ¾" or 5 11/16" 50 - 60 pounds Cmb
Extra Shallow, ½ 4 ¾" or 4 11/16" 40 - 50 pounds Cmb
8 frame boxes:
Jumbo, Dadant Deep 11 5/8" 80-88 lbs
Deep 9 5/8" 64-72 lbs
Western Bee Supply 7 5/8" 56-64 lbs
Medium, Illinois 6 5/8" 48-56 lbs
Shallow 5 3/4" or 5 11/16" 40-48 lbs
Extra Shallow 4 ¾" or 4 11/16" 32-40 lbs
>It seams like all of the books default to two deep 10 frames, for the bottom of the hive, and then medium supers above that.
Not all of them. "The Backyard Beekeeper" doesn't.
>The people that are enjoying the hobby, and not trying to make a living at it, seem to suggest the lighter weight solutions.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#lighterboxes>Still, I haven't decided yet. There is alot to be said by having all of your equipment being the same.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#uniformframesize> Maybe I'll go with the 10 frame mediums. Its a standard size, and if I wanted to go to the larger ones I could easily.
Absolutely.
> Also companies stock the 10 frame boxes, than the 8 frame.
Actually almost all of them have eight frame boxes they just don't tell you they do. Recently more of them have been telling you. Currently, Miller Bee Supply, Brushy Mt, Betterbee, Mann Lake and Western Bee Supply TELL you they have them and list them in their catalogs.
>The nuc I just ordered has the deep frames, not many sources for the medium frames.
There are more every year. I know Bjorn in Pennsylvania has mediums and Don (Fatbeeman) in Georgia has mediums, and usually I have mediums. I'm sure there are others, but the norm still seems to be deeps. The nice thing is you can buy an eight frame deep box and leave it on the bottom and use all the rest as mediums and then eventually cut down the deep.
Another option is build a 3" tall five frame wide shim, just like the top three inches off of a five frame nuc (or buy a medium five frame nuc an cut the top 3" off) and put the five deeps on one side in that and finish out the frames with mediums. As that fills you can move the shim and the deeps up to the next box and fill out the bottom one with mediums and work your way up like that. :)
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnewbees.htm