I am breathing normally again.
The details:
I didn't get to read the other replies since my last post. I did make a quick run home at lunch. I had a thought if they are all attached to the paper why not dump them in the bottom of the hive.
So I lifted the hive up and took all the bees on the paper and shook them onto the bottom part of the hive and recovered the board. There were still some bees on the ground next to the hive where the newspaper was but not many. I went back to work.
I came home about 5:30pm EST (GMT+5) and lifted up the paper and there were no bees. Nada, zip, zero. I think this is excellent.
There are a ton of bees running in the hive and traffic levels are looking more normal. I took some photos at around 6:00pm, by then most of the bees were asleep and traffic had come to an end for the day.
I am still uncertain if there is a queen, I did not spot one. I still suspect the answer is no. I am going to look in the boat again tonight.
I want to move the bee hive back on top of the barrel tonight as I don't want the snakes of mice to get into the hive.
I am thinking of ordering a second deep soon because all the frames are full with hive. I want the bees to get back to a normal operating mode and then add the second hive box.
The weather has started to warm up again and will be this way for a couple of days and then it is going to drop back into a high 60F low 40F mode for about a week to 2 weeks.
Keep sending me your ideas comments and other information as I am grateful for all the help.
Hopefully things will start to get back to normal here.
You can see the updated pics on aftermath, showing no bees.
http://www.understudy.net/images/aftermath/index.htmlSincerely,
Brendhan