Susan,
 
I suggest that you check your new hives to see if there is new larva,
eggs and a queen.  The queen might have died.  It is also possible that
queen cells are in a hive because the present queen is not laying and
must be superceded.  If that is the case, then removing queen cells
would prevent the bees from raising a new queen. Normally, healthy
queens destroy queen cells.
 
I don't bother removing excess comb from the bottoms of frames.  Bees do
what they want to do and frequent opening of the hive can be disruptive
to the colony.  Good luck in beekeeping!!!    JT