We've discussed the fact that nurse bees seem to be found very close to the brood when there is brood in the hive and consequently can observe that, in early season, pollen supplement is only consumed close to the brood until the colonies grow large.  

Bee samples  for alcohol wash taken even a short distance distant from brood will give vastly different results from bee samples taken right on the brood.

Older bees are found on outer combs.

If we take several supers off a hive that has occupied all their boxes and replace the boxes immediately with empty ones, the bees rush right back up into the replacements, but if we pull several boxes then lid the hive and then replace the same number of boxes days later, their enthusiasm for occupying those boxes is generally reduced.

This causes me to wonder if specific bees consider specific parts of the hive to be their 'home' at various stages of their lives and spend most of their hive time in or near these locations, much the way that humans return to a home when not at work.

Does anyone know how far individual bees wander inside a hive over a matter of a few days and if they have favourite hangouts?  

I'm sure many grad students have been assigned to watch marked bees inside hives and wonder if anyone has written anything on this topic, or better still, if anyone reading this been one of those grad students...

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