bees at home

We've had the bees for a week and a half now. Paul and I did an inspection on Monday, a little over a week from when when first installed them. Unfortunately, they were building comb crooked, about about a 30 degree angle to the top bars, instead of parallel with the bars. This means that there is no real way we can inspect the hive, harvest honey, etc. So we had to break off most of the comb that was attached sideways on the bars. We tried to salvage some of the comb by tying it to the frame, but the majority of the comb was so soft that it just fell off. We put the failed comb in a pie plate and left it inside the hive for the bees to clean (they will take the nectar stored in the failed comb and put it in new comb, which is hopefully attached to the top bars in the direction that we want). We're doing another inspection today, to see if the bees are repairing the damage we did.  We'll also be looking for the queen, or signs of the queen. I'm a little concerned that she's dead because when we looked at the hive on Monday, there didn't seem to be any brood comb (where she lays her eggs).