Ok, I'm an idiot. I took my camera, took pictures of the ice chest, but forgot to bring the cable home to be able to get the pics off my camera...I charged the camera at work.
The first big plus is that they are indeed honeybees!
So, verbal description. This is not a fridge, or a cooler. This is a huge, walk-in thing with two rooms. Walls are about 2" thick. I have to go in from the outside, though, because the inside is full of crap. The outside is sheet metal of some sort, and there's a 1" hole where the bees found access. It appears they have built the hive between the walls, so...I'm not sure what it's going to look like when I actually open it up...would they make row after row of very narrow combs? It'll be pretty hard to rubber band those into frames, but I guess I could cut them up into short strips and rubberband several onto each frame.
On the plus side, it shouldn't be too hard to remove a huge chunk of the wall to get at the hive, assuming it is in the wall, and not in the roof. If it's in the roof, I don't know what I'm going to do...the guy wants to be able to repair it, so I can't just destroy as I go...I have to be a little conscious of how much damage I cause.
Another complication is that the guy who owns the house isn't the person I've spoken with; it's his friend. The guy who owns the place works carnivals, and he's rarely home. So...all the information I get and give goes through an intermediary. I think I'm going to call the friend again and discuss possibilities, if the homeowner isn't going to be there. If I have to go into the roof, the damage will be more extensive, but to my benefit, the combs would be larger, and not thin strips. It'll also be a much bigger PITA to do the removal.
Has anyone ever started a removal, and given up due to the difficulty? I'm hesitant to cut into this thing and not be able to do the work...leaving the guy with damage to repair and no solution to his problem.