The bottom box only has 9 frames in a 10 frame deep box because for some reason, they didn't like one of the frames. They ignored it and built really thick comb on the frames on either side of it and pretty much filled the space inside the offensive frame. They kept sticking the offensive frame to one side or the other, making it difficult to get things apart, and they otherwise weren't building on it, so I
removed it.
The two super-thick frames have comb that looks normal on one side, but the sides facing each other are highly irregular in thickness. They do match each other nearly perfectly, though... where one is thick, the other is thin and the space between them is mostly uniform.
With them starting to get busy, I added a box (shallow, foundationless)
So far, they haven't started building on it except to connect the two wonky frames to the bottom of the frames above them. .. and they're pretty insistent about it .. scrape it off, they build it back. Otherwise, all looks good.
The thick frames are a mix of brood and honey with the really thick parts honey, of course.
Been tempted to cut a few pieces of PVC sheet and lay it on top of the wonky frames to discourage them, but it seems like that might make things worse.
Should I just bite the bullet, pull them, cut out the honey, put the brood parts of the comb back in, and add the 10th frame?
Or do something else?
I have rechecked "bee space" and it seems right. They're only doing it in that one area. They are climbing over the new short frames, just not building on them yet.