>I have seen some talk of reversing frames - why?
Frames? or brood boxes?
People reverse brood boxes to prevent swarming. I don't. It does prevent swarming (at least for a while), but it sets the hive back rearranging the brood nest. I only swap the brood boxes when the bottom one is empty and I want the bees to use it. They usually move down on their own.
People reverse frames when the bees are misdrawing the comb. Scraping off anything that is wrong and reversing the frame usually helps.