Hi, Mike here in Venice CA, and I'm really excited and hoping to get it right.
Here's the situation: I need advice in transferring fully developed combs from our borrowed bee rescue hive into my new TBH hive I built from plans. I watched a rookie bee keeper pull comb from the lid of our compost pile and tie 4 of them onto his bars, putting them into the 16 bar "rescue" hive in our back yard, I left town for 1 1/2 months, my wife told me a swarm left the hive and parked in our tree last week. I got home and looked inside the rescue hive- wow! packed full of comb! Our rookie bee keeper had returned to transfer things to my TBH but got overwhelmed, bees got angry, his suit leaked bees, his dog got stung, my wife and friend got stung, glad I was not there! He just beat it out of there.
My wife and I have full one piece suits, gloves, hive tools, cool antique smoker via Ebay and a WE CAN DO THIS attitude.
I read a good bit about bee keeping, videos etc..... Can't find the written word on transferring comb from one hive to another.
The bars are not interchangeable size wise. I built a "Golden Mean" hive. Great fun. When the rookie beekeeper did the original transfer from the compost lid to the rescue hive, he just cut the comb and loosely tied it onto the new bar with cotton string.
Hoping to hear from some seasoned bee people, Mike and Edith - Blue Pacific Bee's - ha ha