Bees remove drawn out comb to foundation

I see comb taken back to the mid-rib when either the comb has sustained wax-moth damage, or in order to remove dried-out and hardened pollen. In your photo, neither of these appears to be the case. So - it's guessing time.

I notice that on the bottom bar the bees have made a vain attempt at drawing drone cells - perhaps that was also their intention by removing sections of the existing comb ? Only guessing mind ...

Do you have drone combs in that hive ?
LJ

Just re-read your post - perhaps there were swarm cells in those areas ...

This is our first year so your guess is better then mine! At time of swarm we had supersede (above) and swarm cells (below) the area in question. I'm just glad we have a laying queen again to try and build this up before winter.

Just an FYI bees don't build swarm and supersede cells. Position of the cells is basically a nonsense guide imo. They're swarm cells if they have swarm conditions, they usually have lots of cells built, they are purpose built cells (not emergency cells), and they can be anywhere on the frame. Supersedure cells are usually 1 or 2 in number, mostly built on the face of the frames but that's not a hard rule, and it is done to replace a failing queen or one they perceive to be failing.

It didn't make sense why both would be there and I was confused about that also. When I had looked it up online I had 4 cells in the middle of 2 frames (in pairs) and about 5 hanging from the bottom of different frames.