Wonky comb!

[Teena]

I am new to this and not sure what to do. I have a hive with 1 deep and 1 medium for the brood nest. I used starter strips in the frames cause eventually I would like to be as foundationless as I can, so the bees can do their own thing. They are doing well, but when I inspect the med. it has comb built all over the place in and out of the frame, attached to the hive body etc. They have indeed "done their own thing." And this is the "level" hive. I have not wanted to pull out the frames and tear up the work they have done. One thought has been...it is the nest so just leave it alone, what difference does it make? But then the other thought is...if I have to inspect each frame and eventually change out the old comb (every 3 years?) I am going to have to tear it all out. I don't think mid July is the best time to do something that drastic. Can you guys give me some thoughts on how to think about this?
Thanks!

[AllenF]

Really bad comb needs to be fixed early when noticed.   If it is just wavy and you can remove the frames, then I would not worry about it.   If you can not remove a frame, then just cut the bad part out.   Brood levels will drop because of the dry spell we are coming into.   You will not have to worry about loosing brood cleaning up frames.    You can bend some of comb straight also and let the bees fix it.   Don't tear out all of it, just the really bad stuff. 

[Joe D]

If the comb is soft enough you can easily push in back to straight, like Allen said.  Good luck, Teena.



Joe

[JackM]

I also am foundationless and had that issue.  As I got them to draw straight comb, I would put an empty frame between two drawn frames and they followed the strips much better.  I have had them go 90 degrees to the frame and just twisted and rubber banded it in place, so not so difficult, new comb is really soft and pliable.  I must add that I am not interested in any honey this season, only to build to a hive that will survive  our long wet winters.