The weight you actually lift

• A full British National brood box weighs about 25 to 30 kg.
• A full Langstroth deep, the standard ten-frame box, weighs 36 to 41 kg, nearly half again as much, for holding the same amount of brood and stores in a taller box.
• An eight-frame Langstroth uses the same depth of frame in a narrower box, a fifth fewer frames, and comes in at 27 to 32 kg, close to a National's own weight.

None of this is a small colony against a big one. It is the same bees and the same honey, packed into boxes built to different heights.