After seeing Dr. Sharashkin's entries on Permies I bought his book, "Keeping Bees With A Smile." After reading the book I signed up for one of his 2 day seminars in Missouri. It was a long drive from Indiana and then back home. By the way, we were taken back into the forest to see some of his hives. There were approximately 50
people in the group and we were around at least 5 hives and none of the participants were stung. Of course it was October when things were slow in the hives any way but we did see bees coming out of the backs of the hives.
But, the seminar was well worth my time and I came home with both a Horizontal Hive and a Swarm Trap.
Just reading about these had already made my decision. I have a vertical hive and as I'm getting older those supers get heavier and heavier. In the Horizontal Hives most of the lifting, after setting up the hive on a frame for your height, is a frame full of honey (8 to 10 lbs).
To check on your bees in the vertical hives you have to lift off all of your structure to get down to the bottom box. In the Horizontal Hive you just have to open the lid and select the correct frames to see the queen, etc.