Thanks Pete and Plantoid, lots of ideas.
Yes, I'm in Germany and it seems things are done differently here. I only started with Bees here, so I've never learnt the English words of beekeeping, and maybe I have used the wrong vocabulary. Here is a picture of what is generally used here (although of course there are also Top Bar frames etc..).

This is called a Segeberger, and this one has 3 "zargen", the boxes with the frames in, each is identical and interchangable, holds 11 frames and can be used for brood or stores. The Queen Excluder goes above whichever "zargen" hold the brood (depending on how much brood one has). Above this is for stores. The floor has a grill in and a place to slide in a board to catch anything that falls out (to monitor varroa or see if a mouse has crept in during the winter). Under the lid is a see-through plastic sheet for monitoring purposes. There is no door/hole in the roof at all, although a bee escape could be build it somehow I'm sure.
My set up has just 2 "zargen", floor and roof, with no excluder since the autumn. After extracting I returned the mostly empty frames so the bees could clean the up and store the feed I gave them. I was not sure that the frames in the brood section alone would hold enough stores to get the colony though the winter. This does mean that the Queen is now able to wander through the whole hive (both what I intend to be brood and stores come the spring) and therefore will probably lay in the combs for extraction - I hadn't realised this as bad. I suppose if she and they survive I will be happy enough.
I will have to find her, and shut her below the excluder when it gets warmer (with these tips I can do it). Overall it seems that the basics and philosophy are the same even if some of the mechanics are different, so thanks for all the help.
Laurieston,
ps. Just for interest this whole kit, in the picture, cost just under 100€