LONG Hives are great fun and I credit them with making me a better BEEK overall. The only real issues I ever had with them was providing proper insulation, ventilation and ability to feed or even know whether they needed feed, during long cold spells. That and I found that DEEPS in a Long Hive did better than Mediums (I currently use all mediums in my Langs and NUCs). I had one really nice colony survive over three years though and made splits from it every year until the queen finally succumbed (but I've got her daughters :)).
The experience was/is very self-educating and satisfying, and 'different' in some very pleasant ways. Brood rearing tends to take place near the entrances (mine 'were' on one end) and honey tends to be placed toward the back. My design allows me to look at any portion of the hive without disturbing the broodiest…unless I want to.
During winter in a Long Hive bees move from front door to the back end consuming honey. I created a cubby on the back end with a small (bee) access that I could place 5 lbs of sugar, because once my particular design is closed up for winter I don't dare open it (can't check stores) until we reach appropriate temps.
Converting my Long Hives into 3-4 partitioned sections so I can raise NUCs has been successful…so far…and makes sense for what I have going on. I've only done one and modifications have been drawn up and just need to be implemented. Fun, fun…. :)