Well Now What?

[CPABeekeeper]

Hi folks,
I'm a newbie--I've learned more on this forum and on Michael's pages than from any of the books I've read.

About 10 days ago I installed a single package in a new hive. I'm an accountant and I wasn't able to open the hive for its first inspection until yesterday (tax season's over). I've been feeding them sugar syrup and they're rolling thru about a quart per day and a lot of activity at the hive, so I've not been too worried about them.

The inspection went well and the bees were very calm, and I was surprised that I was able to find the queen. She was out of her cage and running around. I wasn't sure if I found any eggs, but everything seemed happy so I closed the hive back up.

Here's my problem: when I installed the package I hung the queen cage between two frames and had only 9 frames in the deep box. Now the bees have drawn so much comb in that extra wide space that I can't get the 10th frame back in. In fact, I'm afraid I'll never be able to get the 10th frame back in. Should I worry about it or just let it go forward as a 9 frame deep??

Thanks for all your help.

[TwT]

any comb that is not drawn uniformly scrap off, and add that 10th frame in your brood chamber, if you don't do it soon its a waste of the bee's resources and hard work, the mess will only get worse and make it hard on you doing inspections, just be careful and not hurt your queen doing this, find her and make sure she is not on the frames you clean up... just my 2 cents...

[Todd Zeiner]

It's been my experience that the extra comb they build usually has sugar water in it. So I just scrape it off and leave it by the entrance so they can clean it up. For sure don't wait too long. It's amazing how much they can build in a few short days.

[Michael Bush]

If it has brood in it, I'd cut it out and tie it in an empty frame. If it's just syrup, I'd take it out and throw it away.

[CPABeekeeper]

Thanks for the advice--I think it just has syrup in it so far. I'll slice it off.

[Sundance]

If it is a sizeable chunk of comb you could certainly tie it into a frame. That way the ladies hard work does not go to waste.