Feral comb.. what would you do?

[SlickMick]

I have a small feral hive that has now been in a deep for about 3 weeks. It was less than 5 frames but has now grown to 7 frames which I am happy about considering that it is autumn (your fall) here. Had a look in this afternoon. The comb that had been fixed in with rubber bands has now been firmly tied into the frames with new comb but it is all wonky and much of it is brood so I am reluctant to do anything to it in an attempt to straighten it up. The two additional frames that I inserted with starter strips of foundation have been 75% built out and look quite good

When the box is full I am tempted to move the feral comb into a second deep super with an excluder below it and with some frames with drawn comb and foundation for the queen to lay in. Perhaps when I put the super on I could move the feral frames to one side to encourage the queen to lay in good comb and eventually have the feral comb for honey stores until it is replaced.

Is there another option to getting this feral comb straightened that is, moving it to the outside of the box and cutting out the bendy bits when the brood has moved back into the centre of the box?

Mick

PS by the way I am moving to foundation-less

[EasternShore]

Mick..Sounds like a good plan to me..

[Michael Bush]

Why do you want the feral comb out?  Why not let them keep it?

[Brian D. Bray]

I think he wants the feral comb out because it isn't straight to the frame but has a few wahoo's in it which would create manipulation problems.  I'd suggest moving the warped combs up into a honey super and replacing them in the brood box with foundationless frames.

[JP]

Mick, there's a couple of things you can do.

1)Nothing-leave the deep like it is cross comb and all and just let them have that box and allow them to move up. You can manage the other boxes.

2)Go in with a serrated knife and cut the cross comb out but leave the feral comb attached between the frames. You can stagger the frames in that deep, one feral, one frame with starter strip, one feral, one with starter strip.

Leave honey on the outside, brood in between.

Can't predict however that they will keep things clean even after you do the repairs but the staggering should help.

3) Removing the feral comb entirely, as M.B. pointed out should not be an option, but if you want to do it as an experiment, or to satisfy your desire to have a cleaner looking hive, just remember they worked hard to draw those 7 frames and you will be bringing them back to square one.


...JP