Ok, for those of you following the saga the bee guy FINALLY showed up yesterday. Took about a month and 4 phone calls but here is the setup. First he came in the day and stapled a net into a funnel shape with a hole at the long end. Stapled the flat end (pic #2) to the opening. The bees that were out collecting pollen can't get back in while those already inside can only get out if they find their way up and out of that funnel. Pheromones will lead them back to the screened opening, though, once they find their way out. They can't figure out where the opening to the funnel was located.
In the evening, the guy came back with an empty bee-box and tossed it up near the opening of the funnel. With luck, the frustrated bees will take up digs there. In a few weeks to a month, the goal is to have them establish a new queen / colony in the box. Then the net comes down and, as he explained, if they take to the box it is likely that they will go into the old hive (in the wall) and actually MOVE the honey from the wall to the box.
