I'm with Jason on TBHs. I found them to become lazy once they grow to a certain size, not sure if the bees don't like to grow horizontally or what.
I'm curious if the natural preference is to grow vertically or horizontally, and with a quick search I didn't find much information.
It seems that in many of the cut-out removals photos I've seen, the top of the comb is attached to a horizontal surface and subsequent combs fan out horizontally from there. Also, in a Langstroth, the bees first fill the frames horizontally and then move up to the next box, and repeat. In a tree hollow, do they not find a 'ceiling' to attach to and build horizontally from that? And when they build in walls, they start at the top, move across, then down? These observations lead me to believe that the preference is to expand horizontally. Any research done on this?
For those of you who do cut-outs, what is your experience with the orientation of the combs (warm-way/cold-way) in relation to the location of the entrance?