Well, the cutout was a lot of fun!
These bees turned out to be very gentle - lots of very dark black bees and a few lighter golden ones.
Took over 2 hours to find the queen but we finally did and got her in a cage. The bees were living between the eave and the roof and were getting in through a hole where the natural gas line entered the attic. Since the house is being torn down she just got on the roof and cut a big hole in the roof and flipped it over. The bees had attached comb to the plywood decking and were building down.
I really enjoyed being able to observe a wild hive and get to spend so much time looking them over. I always try to get my own hives buttoned back up as soon as I can so as not to stress them out too much.
The most interesting part was the total lack of mites. Saw a few hive beetles, but not one single mite. We opened up 8-10 drone brood and and not a single mite in them, either. Some got sliced in half when the she cut the comb out since they were at the bottom and again, none had mites. She has about 80 hives and doesn't treat any of hers so these should do well for her. I wish I could have taken them but I can't.
I'll upload the pictures tomorrow and post them.