When I check on the bees morning and evening I usually see the worker bees flying now. Have not seen the queen in a couple of days. Hopefully she is doing whatever we interrupted when we moved those bricks- producing larvae perhaps. If the workers are gathering pollen it’s a safe bet they’re supporting the queen. The other night before it rained I noticed they had placed hundreds of little dirt balls on top of a leaf topping their underground, or under-leaf, nest. Ballast perhaps. But the rain washed it off.

6/9/2013 No bee activity for 2+ days now and I fear they have died. We may have upset the balance of stored food and foraging at exactly the wrong time. But maybe the queen is in her nest making more larvae, maybe the workers helped build that nest and then died.  I will continue to watch.