I pull them off and process. I suspect most are left tall because of the economy of less trips to the bee yard.
And often the day job that feeds our family takes priority over our hobby and sideline business.It's a lot of work and a lot of wasted honey every time you extract. I prefer to do it only once a year.
True, but any hive with 5 or 6 supers stacked up as the OP states, almost certainly has plenty of extractable honey in the hive. Our new honey is currently running between 15.5 and 16.0%Not all honeys are dry enough to extract as soon as they are capped. If the moisture content is too high it ferments. Not everyone has honey drying equipment either.
You have more experience than I do, and I don't use excluders either. It amazes me how the queen stays in the brood chambers and the rest get filled with honey. I had some capped brood in the bottom row of a honey super once, but I wouldn't call that sprawling.I don't use queen (honey) excluders so the queen likes to sprawl resulting in 6 or 7 boxes high. The upside is the more bees, the more honey.
Please explain. I didn't think honey could get any drier once capped....hence the reason they cap it.Not all honeys are dry enough to extract as soon as they are capped. If the moisture content is too high it ferments.