New beekeeper mistake

[Apis63]

Well, I really messed up this time......I have a problem and am wondering what I should do about it. I have an inner cover that is reversible--one side is deep and one is shallow. I put the cover on with the deep side down and now it is FULL comb with lots of brood. I added a medium super to that hive today. My second hive is not as strong. Can I move that cover full of brood over to the other hive or do I just have to scrape this all off and call it a loss?

[neillsayers]

You might try cutting it out carefully and rubber banding it into a foundationless frame to place in your weaker hive. Make sure its very warm when you work it though. Also, wait until those with more experience than myself weigh in. I've never done this.

[apisbees]

If it has no brood then don't bother trying to save it.
You look at this as a bad thing I see it as a good solution to a problem the bees were facing. they needed more room and they had it the empty space in the cover rim. with out this space you would have missed out on this extra honey. let the bees cap it and cut it out and sell it as natural caped honey.. Add another super but I would leave it on top it will draw the bees through the super to draw it out.

[Perry]

Are you sure there is brood in that? It looks like very white wax from the picture and my guess would be it is mostly honey in it. If so, just scrape it off and enjoy, or let the bees have it.

[tbonekel]

That seems to be a really deep cover. More like what some would call a shim for winter feeding. Anyway, if you added a super underneath, then if there was brood in that comb, you could wait till they emerge, then the bees would backfill with honey. Then you could cut it out and mmmm... My thoughts anyway.

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[rcannon]

I'd plop it on top of the weaker hive above an excluder. If it has brood they'll hatch and move down. Then you can deal with the comb at your leisure. I really wouldn't worry about it too much.
I was give a hive one time that was five deeps and no frames in any of them. Talk about a mess.  The bees had been unattended for years.

[apisbees]

Id you take rcannon suggestion make sure you find the queen in the hive you would not want to make the mistake of moving the queen. It looks like more honey than brood to me also and if it is anything other than open brood in the comb the bees will be older and will migrate back to their original hive if they are moved to a new colony so in the end you wont accomplish much unless it is nurse bees tending open brood.

[Jen]

I think these comb mazes are cool to look at. I've had a couple lids like that as well.

Like the others said, try and look for the queen on these wonky comb creations, and make sure she gets back into her hive.

It sure helps if you have a queen clip handy in times like this.