Cross Combing :(

[Shea H]

Hi, I'm a new beekeeper. While inspecting today, I made a pretty big mistake. I  saw that they were cross combing pretty bad. Thinking it was just some minor burr comb I cut down the middle of the frames and I probably cut too deep. I saw honey and larvae spilling out of the frames. Admittedly I panicked and just closed up the hive.  What do I do with the ruined frames? They're filled with honey and pollen so should I let the bees collect it? The queen was almost exclusively laying in those two frames so I think I lost a lot of eggs and larvae. Will the exposed honey bring robbers? Do I completely finish cutting through the comb. I may be overreacting but I'm very concerned. The colony has always been weak so I'm worried I made it much worse. Thanks.

[Bob Wilson]

Shea. We had another question like this not long ago. It is almost always best to fix a cross comb problem as soon as you can get to it. Suit up well. Get your smoker lit, and take a few empty frames and some rubber band with you to the hive.
Remove each frame and shake the bees into the box. Salvage what frames you can by trimming and pushing the comb into place,  or cutting it out and rubber banding it into an empty frame. It will be messy, and the bees will be unhappy, but work camly and steadily. Try to keep the frames in the same direction and order. then close up the hive and leave it alone for two weeks. After two weeks, go back in and check for eggs and larva.
Sorry for your trouble. In Florida, you probably still have a honey flow. They should clean up inside the hive fine.

[Shea H]

All my frames already have plastic foundation so I'm not able to cut through them. How do I avoid this in the future? Were the frames not properly spaced out? Is the hive not level?

[Bob Wilson]

My mistake. I assumed with cross comb that you had empty frames. In my hive the side bars of each frame touch each other. My frames are pushed together touching each other. Are yours? Maybe you can take a picture and post it with your question. I have seen pictures of plastic foundation in which the bees built between two frames and did not build on the plastic surface.

[Michael Bush]

Sometimes they build fins out at right angles to the foundation.  I guess that's "cross comb".  It's certainly cross...  The other kind I can only describe as a "parallel half comb".  It is a comb out from the surface of the foundation that has cells on only one side but a gap behind it.

[Beelab]

A beekeeper I know calls it ?cloud comb? if the bees build close to, but not on the plastic foundation. What Mr Bush describes as ?parallel half comb?.
I don?t use plastic foundation any more, but if, I would thoroughly wax the plastic before giving to the bees.

[Bob Wilson]

Those are good answers and descriptions to what I thought was happening, but I have never used foundation, and only seen it in photographs.
Whether it is cross comb (hanging from two or more topbars) or these "fin, cloud, parallel" comb built off the face of the plastic foundation in the empty space between two frames, the answer seems the same to me.
You have to remove it. If it is salvageable, take out the foundation from a frame and rubberband the comb in its place. Put it back in the hive and surround it with your other plastic foundation frames.
Push them all tight together.

[Michael Bush]

I always remove it unless it's full of brood and I don't think the colony can spare it.  Like a small colony late in the year.