>The hive faces the same situation. They don't know how long a given amount
of honey will last, so it would be a mistake to stop foraging for any reason
>other than completely running out of room to store honey. I submit that
this is what they do, and this is the strategy that has evolved over time. 


I agree with this. With what we think we know about bee communication, I am
not convinced that the colony can determine that they have "enough" so
"let's collect closer to home?" I think we are trying to humanize our
subjects.  It also seems to me that we agree that if there is space/or need
to collect more nectar, bees continue to forage.
 
Foraging is a dangerous activity.  Long foraging, it follows, has greater
danger and less success.  I wrote many high school and college research
papers (in 1970's) on Von Frisch's work and have followed the additional
studies since. The newer studies suggest that most would be foragers ignore
the location of the successful forager's waggle dance and most (as much as
90%+) return to areas they had prior knowledge. (by statistical "success"
analysis would most probably be closer sources). This would apply to similar
floral sources.  What about dissimilar floral sources, which is what has
been offered in this  "Foraging Strategies" discussion. Well, those same
studies suggest that the would be foragers will be successful foragers
without decoding the waggle dance.

	-Following a dance may simply trigger foraging behavior. A forager
may then search randomly for resources.
	-Following a dance may reactivate private knowledge of a resource.
After reactivation, the forager may return to the known resource or area.

It is also suggested that in temperate areas, the waggle dance information
becomes less important and the colonies are able to successfully forage
without the waggle dance information.

I guess what I am trying to make a case for is it probably comes down to
statistics and success rates. Local sources will be more successful as "long
forage events" become more hazardous.  A shift from one floral source to
another might just be an expression of statistical success rather than
"knowing" how full the hive is back home. And in the case of fall foraging,
bees are more likely to be successful on short foraging events and the act
of recruitment may be more a simple trigger to forage randomly rather than
specific sources.	


Grüter, C.; Balbuena, M.; Farina, W. (2008). "Informational conflicts
created by the waggle dance". Proceedings. Biological sciences / the Royal
Society 275 (1640): 1321–1327.

Grüter, C. .; Farina, W. . (2009). "The honeybee waggle dance: can we follow
the steps?". Trends in ecology & evolution (Personal edition) 24 (5):
242–247.

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