Out-Of-Place Bee Behaviour

Perhaps the bees set up a sort of temporary 'encampment' hive to shelter and provide for them until a permanent hive is set? I wonder how long these last?

I don't think that this hive was intended as something temporary. Whether it can survive the winter may be another story. It took a large investment to build those combs; furthermore, notice that some cells are capped, sign of a pupa inside. Also the color of the wax tells you something about its age; the shining white one is brand new. The older it gets the darker the color. They must have raised a brood already in the darker ones.
I am speculating a little and could be wrong. My knowledge about honey bees is limited to what I read in three books: Stephen Buchmann, Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind; Sue Hubbell, A book of bees and Jay Hosler, Clan Apis.
In fact, I would love it if some expert would tell us a little more about these open combs.

all this happened a couple of decades ago. I just didn't know how to word the question in an understandable manner. If I had seen it nowadays, I doubt very seriously I could climb the next tree over to get a shot as I did then. :-)

It's my understanding that honey bees are having a time of it, these days. Probably something we humans did and are not yet aware of what it might be.

Whenever man takes an organism and puts it in a place that nature did not, bad things are bound to happen. Same goes when you take an organism and use it for your benefit. Even when you're the most caring and attentive of keepers, your interference will always leave that possibility for disaster.

It's even more reason to not only fund and support the research to help keep these hives in health through this, but to advocate the importance of our native pollinators as well. People often forget that some of our best friends are close by. Nature provides for us, and when we take it for granted, she reminds us that we are in the same boat as the bees. Struggles are as inevitable as triumphs.

Your second statement partly contradicts the first one; man took an organism (the European honey bee) and put it in a place that nature did not. We are using it for our benefit. Are we interfering with nature by trying to help the honey bees? Definitely, yes. I am not advocating getting rid of honey bees, of course; we just can't go back. They have become necessary to us as well as most species we depend on from wheat to cows, from rice to chickens.
Now, I am all in favor of protecting native pollinators.

I am fully aware the 'commercial' Honey Bee is non-native, and I probably didn't say it! That's what happens when I ramble on. ^^ Plus I am a very contradictory individual.

I think a really good example of the follies of our 'management' of nature to our benefit is the use of European Honey Bees in Japan. Perfect prey for the Giant Hornet. The EHB's have no natural defense against these massive, beautiful predators but the native honey bees have a natural, long-tested strategy. There are many EHB losses every year in Japan because of predation, yet those who stick with the native honey bees have much more success because they're using what nature provided right in front of them!

As for more native pollinators, I've been working the last couple of years to make my home and property friendly to them. I've been planting native wildflowers all over, trying to reintroduce what was historically here before logging. Even with the small amount I've put in I've seen a big jump of Bumblebees, Leafcutters, and my personal favorite, Melissodes. And many more I have yet to ID! Plus lots of Hornets, wasps, syriphids and lepis!

I do have a lot of sympathy for the EHB, but it's just another example of the follies of man trying to mange things to their profit. As I said, there are plenty of those who really care about them, but it's still a non-native in an environment they didn't evolve in. We have to take responsibilty when things go wrong, and must understand the balance of the ecosystems we live in. And the fact that when we introduce something that didn't evolve there, things can go very wrong. Sometimes for the ecosystem, sometimes for the organism.

I could go on and on and on! Simple conclusion is ALL organisms need our help, but we have to know when to step back and stop trying to be the manager.

If EHB populations crash then other managed pollinators, likely including non-native species or populations, will need to fill the gap in pollination services, potentially creating severe problems for native bee species through spread of disease, competition, etc. Conserving the EHB may be very beneficial to native bee species if it reduces the need to expand use of additional exotic pollinator species.

I don't think we will ever be able to step back from actively managing our EHBs or our ecosystems in general.

I had no idea this was as common as it appears. I don't understand why no-one I talked to over the years didn't know about it. Thank you Beatriz. I didn't even know what to call the phenomenon. "Feral" was the word that couldn't come to mind....what can I say?