Would you do that even it it meant breaking the cluster/festooning mass and shaking them off to the bottom of the hive? There is such a tight pack of bees it is tough to tell if there is comb underneath all that mass.Whatever they have built on I would leave. Whatever they have not built on, I would pull out and replace with the 1 1/4" bars.
Ok, I understand what you're saying now.If they are in a big festoon, most of the bees are attached to other bees that are attached to other bars. You won't have that many to shake off.
I understand this concept, the problem is I had a feeling I should just put all "brood bars" in from the get go... but I let myself overthink when we were presented with the package three weeks earlier than anticipated. I might crack it open tonight and see if there's any comb attached. We checked really quickly Wednesday, but didn't want to break the cluster up.If you are going to use wide bars you would not want them in until they started pulling wider comb, but that wont be for some time. I think a better way is just to continue to expand the brood nest until they stop putting brood in the bars at the end and back filling those combs will honey. If they are still making comb at that time it is likely that they are making comb for honey stores.
The upside to expanding the brood nest is two fold. The first is the comb will be consistent with the comb around it, and the second is by keeping it open you lessen the chance of a swarm. First year bees can and do swarm.
That's a little less than I would expect. 1.5 to 2 quarts a week would be closer to what I would expect depending on the package size. I would say something is not right if they haven't built any comb. Should have at least a few good size combs by now.they have taken maybe a quart of syrup since last Saturday.