It depends on the beekeeper. If they have a lot of out yards or hives, or both, it may be easier for them to just stack the hives high in productive areas. It helps slow down swarming too. Harvesting even 50 hives is a lot of work. Setting up a honey house extracting, bottling, rendering wax, etc. and then cleaning it all is a chore. So a beekeeper may only want to do it once a season and put extra supers on. Less chance of missing a strong flow as well. Others may extract more often for seasonal or varietal honey. Spring honey is typically light and Fall is usually dark in my area and have distinct flavors. The highest colony I had was a 2 queen colony about 10' and produced just under 400 pounds of honey. Its no fun taking off supers on a ladder. There's old time photos of hives over 20' in Calgary, Canada. Some years I harvest twice others just once depending on the time I have. I miss plenty of flows but thats okay its not a business for me.
If you're asking about brood boxes some beekeepers use 1 others 2 deeps, its all in how they like to manage their colonies. I like to overwinter in 2 or 3 deeps. Sometimes 2 deeps and medium depending on the amount of stores they have in the fall, I hate feeding in the fall so I just leave a super on. I know some beekeepers that use all mediums and overwinter in three.
Horizontal or long lang hives are great for those who dont want to or cant lift heavy boxes. They're great for people who are handicapped as well. The problem is you're never going to see a 10' long hive. Bees are much more productive vertically. I always tell people that are having back problems to have extra empty boxes and take out half the frames and then lift the box off the hive.
