And there was much Rejoicing!

With the misunderstanding regarding the conditions of getting a frame with eggs from Jason resolved (God bless him for the generous soul he is), I visited the hive today to see if there was enough of a population left to make it worth the try, and if not to see what they might have been doing in there so far.
Imagine my intense pleasure to see that the box has returned to it's former glory.  I did not uncover the clear tube to see if the traffic between wall and box has returned.  Given the swarm of activity to and from the box I can hardly believe that it is not back in full swing.  Apparently it just took them a while to find and take advantage of the opportunity.

Is it also possible that the Queen had paid the box a visit?

At the recent SIBA meeting, I learned to my surprise that workers who become queenless will develop ovaries and start laying eggs (the eggs have not been fertilized but can still develop into drones!!)  If this was occurring in the box during the period they were isolated, could it be that the queen was provoked into putting things back in order and reasserting herself?  I don't know.
All I can say is I am thrilled to see that the bees are back.  Tim (also with SIBA) has generously offered to suit up and take a peek at what is going on after he sets some new hives on 7/7.  At this point I am inclined to leave them alone till then and decide what to do next after we know more about the internal state of the box.

If the Mountain will not come to Mohammed...

I was not able to raise a response with my e-mail broadcast to try to obtain a 'trade frame' so I made it my mission to make time (long overdue) to attend the Southeast Indiana Beekeeper's Association meeting out in Moore's Hill.  A great group of folks that are seriously excited about keeping bees and more than happy to share what they know and help the newbie along.
Once Jason discovered what I was up to he set me straight on the whole frame trade thing so that option is back on the table.  I also talked with Tim, who will be setting hives soon at County Farm.  He was kind enough to be persuaded, after that operation is complete, to take a peek at what I have going to help plan what needs to happen next.
I will be checking in on the setup this weekend to see if there is anything left of the box-resident population and if not, see what they were doing during their brief tenancy.  I also need to take another look at the feasibility of closing the new soffit entrance - with or without a lift.

A Ray of Hope?

Jason, with the Southeast Indiana Beekeepers Assn., has generously offered a frame of eggs to help jump start the return to the box.  The thinking here is two fold.  First, if there is a population of workers in the box, cut off from the main hive, they may well re-Queen themselves with the new eggs.  There is also the hope (and I wish this had been floated sooner :-) that the resident Queen might well make the trip to the box just to find out who the heck has been laying eggs in HER domain.
At this point I need to accomplish two things.  First, I need to find a frame to trade for the one Jason is providing (unfortunately, my home made frames probably won't do. They are foundationless) so I am at the mercy of a kind soul willing to sell me a single frame.  I have put out the word via e-mail - hopefully I will get a taker.  The second thing is that I will have to do an assessment of activities in the box.  If I open it and there is little or no worker population left to take care of them, adding an egg frame would just be a waste.
Stay tuned.

And now Panic.

Even though the blockage has been removed there doesn't seem to be any recovery of traffic.  Worse still, the traffic that WAS there, to and from the box, has declined significantly.  My fear is that if the box is abandoned by those who had adopted it, it will be almost impossible to restart the trend, given the inaccessibility of their new traffic route.