Update: I did a cutout on this location yesterday. If my husband had seen the contraption I lashed together to reach the approximately 23 ft in the air to reach the bees he would of said "No way, Jose' ". I tried to reach them from inside the attic or a bedroom, but that wasn't possible. This place was the goofiest old farmhouse, with weird nooks and crannies EVERYWHERE. No wonder they had bees now, I am sure that they will again. Apparently they had raccoons living between the floors of the house two years ago, and I found hickory nuts under the brood nest propolised in place. Currently, there is no hickory tree within 2 miles of the place.
Well, I pulled out a lot of comb not currently in use, and filled 1 deep with brood and pollen (I am going out to add a box and give them syrup after I post this.) Just about the time I thought I was done, I noticed bees going in slightly above where I had pulled everything out. My ladder contraption was as high as it could go, and I just couldn't reach them. The bees wouldn't have two broodnest areas would they? Who knows if I got the queen, I have yet to spot a queen during a cut out. I told the owner that if he could get a hold of some scaffolding I could come back. IF I got the queen and all of the brood, how long would the remaining bees hang around? They were super nice bees, real quiet (Yeah, it's Spring, but still.) the ones I put in the deep stayed quiet, but the ones that were left were extremely agitated when I left. I had vacuumed up as many bees as I could reach, I have NO idea how many might have been left.
JC