New hive as comb attached to lid, need advice.

[Beefunkrailroad]

Hello guys, Im new here and I have a question.
We recently got 3 packages of bees.  Using the instructions from another bee keeper we left 3 frames out of each box when we dumped the bees in.
A week later we check the boxes and in one box where the 3 missing frames are they are building comb attached to the lid.
What should we do?
Im going to email the admin to see if I can post a pic, Im new here so I dont have enough posts to link to a picture.

Im sure you can imagine tho.  When I lift the lid the comb is attached to the bottom of the lid and hangs down to bottom of the box.
Should I leave it alone or cut it some how?



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Edited to add photo...Buzzbee  :)

[buzzbee]

You will need to cut off this comb and rubber band it into one of your frames. I think it was bad advice to leave the frames out after the bees were dumped in. I usually work them back in slowly after the bees have spread out in the hive box. But heck, you learn as ya go.  :)



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Just reemeber to keep the top to the top. Don't get it turned upside down.

[AllenF]

Cut and paste.    Buzzbee is right.  Don't leave empty space with new frames.  But it is good to see you bees making comb. 

[Kathyp]

other thing is, when you get all your frames back in, make sure they are pushed tight together in the middle of the box.  any little bit of extra space should be on the outside.  this helps keep them from building wonky comb between frames.

the big + is that it looks like what they build was nice and straight!   :-D

[Nonprophet]

I'm brand new too! I remember in one of the books I read (maybe The Practical Beekeeper?) it said that you never, ever leave a frame out for any extended period of time precisely because of what happened to you. People will leave one or two out because they don't want to squish the bees and they figure they'll come back in 20 minutes and put the frames back, but, they forget and there ya go.......

[capt44]

Yep I agree the frames should have been put in.
A bee only needs 5/16 inch space for bees to pass back to back.
Anything else will be filled in.
I forgot and left a spacer for a baggie type feeder on a hive and they had filled it out completely.

[Bees In Miami]

Beefunk....Sorry they left out the detail of returning the frames to the hive after the installation...  :(.  Unfortunately, I have a hive that looks quite similar, but for a different reason.  The cut out and swarm season was busy here, and I simply ran out of equipment, and was 3 frames short.  I had to wait a week, and yes, have a hive that looks worse than yours.  My bees had already built 3 combs...nice and straight....BUT from the lid, like yours.  Though more senior beeks may disagree with my decision, I have decided to wait to do the cut out.  New comb is SOOOO soft and fragile, that you will likely squish all the brood, and destroy the comb trying to make the transfer.  I left mine, and am going to wait for a few brood cycles until the comb can more withstand the cut out, and the colony is stronger to withstand losses.  I simply marked the top of my hive as a reminder, and always have a second pair of hands to lift the lid straight off, and hold it, while I do what I need to do in the rest of the hive.  Again, others may disagree, but with your resources being SO new, I would let them build up and make sure the queen is laying on proper frames before removing.  When you do cut it off, save all the comb you can, and as was shown, rubber band it to an empty frame and place into the brood area.  Just my two cents, and as I say, others may disagree, but it made sense to me then, and now.  Sorry...NOT the best way for you to start beekeeping!!!  :(  Also, as others have said, make sure your frames are pushed tightly together.  Wayyy too much space between the frames that are in your photo.  It will lead to additional problems in the future.  Good luck with whatever you choose, and best to you and your bees!   

[Intheswamp]

I dunno...   I tend to think that it might be better to go ahead and do a cut-out and take the losses of the bit of brood that might be affected.  Waiting till later could be a bigger job involving more comb and more brood affected.  Temperatures in Kentucky are still "cool" right now....later when things warm up and there's been a few brood cycles through the comb the heat could make handling the comb just as bad as handling it now but only more of it.  I'd take care of it now and get on with learning beekeeping. :)

But, I'm just a green newbee myself so take my opinion for what it's worth.  ;)
Ed  

ETA...I agree with BIM that those frames are too far apart...in the brood chamber they should be jammed up against each other.

[Sunnyboy2]

I had the same thing happen to one of my hives, but I made the mistake despite reading a post from his highness M Bush, not sure what I was thinking.  Be careful to look for the queen, or get all the bees brushed off into the hive before cutting/scraping comb off.  The bees stick to the comb like Velcro.  After getting the 6inch heart shaped comb off, and adding syrup, the girls seemed uptight, so I closed the hive.  Then saw the queen on a spare frame with foundation in my tool bucket.   :shock:

She went right back into the hive.
Heaven help my girls, cause I'm not.   

[Course Bee]

I would cut it out now. There are probably only eggs or very young brood and not very much resources have been used at this point aside from the materials for wax. You can salvage most of the comb and probably almost all of the brood will be saved. If you wait they will draw more comb and you'll have more brood and the bees will have more invested as well.

Just my opinion.

[Kathyp]

i'd do it now too and i'd take a good look at it.  if it's not got a lot of eggs and brood, i'd just toss it and let them start over on those frames. of course, looking at your picture, it looks like that's where all the bees are, so that's probably where the queen and brood are :-).

when you band that comb into a frame, put that frame toward the middle. it will give them a good guideline for repairs, and hopefully  move your queen and brood, if that's where they are, toward the middle. 

rubber band the empty frames before you cut the comb then you can move them over the comb more easily.  i usually use 4 and leave them on the ends until i have the comb where i want it.  smoke that comb before you cut it.  it will run some of the bees off and hopefully run the queen off. 

mistakes like this are usually better corrected early.

[RC]

I had a swarm move into an empty box a few weeks ago and they had comb built all over the lid.I did exactly what the other folks here are telling you, carefully cut it off and rubber band it into a frame. The bees will attach it to the frame in no time.
Like Kathy said, put the rubber bands around the frame first. Leave most of them toward the ends of the frame, work the comb in and then pull the rubber bands over the comb.
Be careful with the comb if the weather is hot. It's pretty soft and fragile.

[Beefunkrailroad]

You guys are awesome!
Thanks for not trolling me and making me feel bad lol.  Im learning as I go.
We have tried to get advice from the few bee keepers in our area and each one will tell us something completely different, it can be very frustrating.
There aren't any bee clubs around us either so our resources were limited until we found Beemaster.com!!  :)

[buzzbee]

No sweat beefunk. We were all beginners at one time.  :)  We really want to help when we can.

[Beefunkrailroad]

Im going out to the bee yard tomorrow and I will try and document the process with a few pics.
Do you guys have any recommendations for a bee brush substitute?

[hardwood]

Goose/turkey feathers work well for a bee brush and don't seem to piss the bees off as much as a nylon brush does. A clump of long grass work well in a pinch.

Scott

[Intheswamp]

Scott, this might be getting a bit OCD of me, but which works better a wing or tail feather?...seems the blade structure of the wing feather might be the best but never having used one I can't say for sure.

Ed

[hardwood]

I use the wing feathers from a turkey...the largest 3 (flight feathers) fanned out a bit and epoxied with whipping twine. Mostly I just shake 'em off though.

Scott

[bilder]

I realized that I did the same thing when I hived a swarm last week.

Going in tomorrow and will have to repair my oops.   Curious how much comb the bees have drawn since they moved in. 

[rwurster]

I hived a swarm once and forgot to put 2 of the frames back into the nuc then went out of town for 6 days.  Same thing happened to me except it got so hot during the day their comb had collapsed twice during that 6 day period.  New white comb is hard to manipulate into a frame with rubber bands because it's so soft but it has to be fixed.  They're one of my stronger colonies this spring.

[Intheswamp]

You guys are awesome!
Thanks for not trolling me and making me feel bad lol.  Im learning as I go.
<snip>

I read something about this nut, er, idiot, er, uh, somebody...that left an *unlit* smoker in his jeep.  It wasn't lit.  But when I, er...he returned to the jeep and opened the door he couldn't see the steering wheel for the smoke...really, really, really thick smoke.  No physical damage but bad, bad, bad smoke smell....  I, er...he knew it was bad when he picked the jeep up from the carwash and the detail guy told me, ah, er...him that he "...was wrong, I thought I could get all the smoke smell out, but...".  :-\

We learn from our mistakes...sometimes the lessons are a bit harsher (smokier?) than other times.... :)

Ed

[Bees In Miami]

We have tried to get advice from the few bee keepers in our area and each one will tell us something completely different, it can be very frustrating.

Welcome to beekeeping!!!   :cheer:  Just take it all in, and make the decision that makes most sense to you.  

Intheswamp...  :shock:  :laugh:   :laugh:  You...errr....your friend was very lucky!!!   :laugh:   :cheer:

[Beefunkrailroad]

We did the comb transfer to the empty frames and it all worked great.  Thanks so much for all the advice guys.

We used the hive tool to cut the comb from the lid
Ill try creating another thread here and show the pictures.  I tried to document this special event the best I could lol!