Queen Cell or Comb

[Darryl]

As a newbie, I did my second inspection and found cells on the bottom bar of some frames. Are the queen cells or just comb? Should I leave them or remove them? Otherwise, the bees look fine and are foraging when the weather permit and since they allowed me into the hive without trying to sting me I assume I must have done something right.
Apologoess for some blurry images - I haven't mastered the art of taking pics with thick gloves on yet.

 

[Boston Bees]

I can only see comb on the bottom of those frames. Remove them if you want to keep the frames tidy.

The clue is that you can see multiple small cells in the comb they have built, rather than one (or a few) elongated cells

Image I bodged together here may help:

 

[BitterleyBee]

looks just like random comb building to me. I'd scrape off what you can on these and make sure you have tighter spacing between and below frames to reduce chances of this happening. some hives seem to like building comb everywhere.
do check hive is level with spirit level all ways and level it up as well as checking the spacing. that's a relatively newbie suggestion!

 

[Earthboy]

When taking pictures, you can shake off the bees first so that QC can be easily spotted, if there is any.

 

[Darryl]

I can only see comb on the bottom of those frames. Remove them if you want to keep the frames tidy.

The clue is that you can see multiple small cells in the comb they have built, rather than one (or a few) elongated cells

Image I bodged together here may help:

View attachment 26353

Thanks Boston Bees. Seeing the two side by side in your pic, I can now tell the difference. There are a few undrawn frames in the brood box so hopefully I don't have much of a swarm threat - yet.

 

[Darryl]

looks just like random comb building to me. I'd scrape off what you can on these and make sure you have tighter spacing between and below frames to reduce chances of this happening. some hives seem to like building comb everywhere.
do check hive is level with spirit level all ways and level it up as well as checking the spacing. that's a relatively newbie suggestion!

Thanks. The nuc was full of weirdly drawn comb when I got it but I manage to keep the spacing down to the minimum. I do suspect that this lot are a bit unconventional when it comes to building comb.

 

[Darryl]

When taking pictures, you can shake off the bees first so that QC can be easily spotted, if there is any.

Will do. I hope to build a jig to hold the frames whilst photographing them so that I can give them a good shake and get clear pics.

 

[user 819]

Never shake a comb with QC until you know the state of play in the whole colony, if they are making swarm preps one will want the selected QC/s to remain unshaken. Once cells are marked for keeping then all the other frames can then be shaken to remove any cells.