He plays it by ear. As the nucs build up he adds space. He used to overwinter a lot of them in four frames. He started doing his splits earlier and most were building up to 4 over 4. I'm sure some build up to 4 over 4 over 4. I can't say what the "norm" is with his present methods, but when I was there several years ago most were going into winter with 4 over 4.