Eight frames or ten

The eight-frame Langstroth is not a different hive, it is a narrower version of the same one: the same depth of frame, a fifth fewer of them, a box around 20 to 25 percent lighter to lift.

That saving is real, and it is the whole point of choosing it. It is also the whole cost: a colony that would fill a ten-frame box needs an extra eight-frame box sooner, so you add and remove boxes more often for the same amount of brood and honey.

Ten frames means fewer, heavier boxes; eight means more, lighter ones. Neither produces more honey than the other. They ask for the same crop in a different currency: weight against how often you lift.