Repairing brood comb

[Duane]

I got a hive from a coworker who didn’t have time to deal with it. The move went well but when I checked out the hive a few days later, I discovered there were 3 frames missing so they built their own attaching them to the top cover. (no supers were on the hive). My question is how do I repair this? Or should I just discard this and put in 3 new frames. I hate to do the latter because there is so much brood in it and it would be difficult to find the queen.

[Dawn_SD]

I would consider cutting out and rubber banding the comb. Just make sure it stays the correct way up - not everyone agrees with me on this, but that is what I would do.

Here is a description of rubber banding with photos:

Caught a birdhouse swarm, hived it, left it alone, and now the bees are in the wrong place

As you have already worked out, they consider the birdhouse to be their hive/home. They will not leave it willingly. If you put it inside a bigger box, they will just try to fill up the gaps with comb again but they will keep using the birdhouse. You cannot stop them from doing that, they are just being normal bees! I am worried that you will end up with a mess if you do that. I would suggest a cut-out instead. Take the comb from the inner cover and rubber band it into the empty frame…

[Duane]

Thanks for the reply. I’ve seen examples of this being done but I guess I needed someone to reinforce my thoughts on this.