> I understood that it was recognised as standard practice to take the bee 
> sample from the brood area.  At least that should produce a base line. 
> BUT - If there is a recognisable variation in that area, an up to date 
> protocol should take that into account.

Lots of food for thought...

The idea of an "up to date protocol" sounds easy, but what I am realising 
now is that a term like "brood area" may be too vague, and defining a 
procedure with precision may be quite difficult as it needs to encompass 
hive size, time of year, flow conditions, type of bee, and maybe more if 
real precision is desired for calibration and comparison purposes.

The locations occupied by young bees in a colony may be very limited at some 
times of year as we can observe by seeing the limited eaten out portion of 
pollen patties sitting on brood chamber top bars, even when clusters are 
large enough to include the patties.  That "young bee domain" may or may not 
be clearly defined and determined by brood amount and stages, but possibly 
other factors enter into it.  If brood stages define the domain of younger 
bees, then a broodless condition, either due to season and bee variety or to 
queenlessness also complicate the question when trying to compare apples to 
apples.

What is the difference in young bee preference and population density 
between an area with eggs, an area with young brood, an area with sealed 
brood, an area with mixed brood, an area with emerging brood, and and area 
where brood recently emerged in which cells are polished and awaiting the 
queen?   What about when there is no brood?  I am now suspecting there is 
some difference, and maybe that difference is greater than one might 
suspect, particularly at some times of year or under some pollen and 
honeyflow conditions.

At some times of year pollen patties are only consumed close to the brood 
and at others, I am told, they can be fed in the supers or entrance.  (I 
have no direct personal observation to prove whether they are consumed or 
simply removed in these situations).

At some times of year, during a long, heavy flow, when any box of bees with 
no brood is removed from a hive and placed near the hive, all the bees in it 
without exception seem to fly back to the hive within minutes or hours.

I have always wondered about abandonment, since there must be some very 
young bees at times, and that asks another question: how soon after 
emergence can bees fly?  I have used abandonment to remove bees from tens of 
thousands of supers and seen very few exceptions to the above abandoning 
phenomenon when conditions are right and must conclude that either I did not 
have the very youngest bees in those boxes, that those very young bees fly, 
or that they walk away.  I have observed that all the bees leave and seem to 
fly away, but never looked closely enough to notice if any are walking (not 
usually unless the boxes are in contact with the parent hive), or the ages 
of the abandoning bees.  We used excluders and that may have been a factor, 
too, although brood was often right up to the top bars next to those 
excluders.

It seems that each idea leads to another.

Of course the observation (if correct) that the youngest bees stay *very* 
close to where brood is being raised under non-flow conditions explains the 
whole argument that swarming is related to large hatches of new bees causing 
congested brood chambers and explains why strategic spreading of brood, 
reversing, and other techniques to "open up" the brood chamber work.

The observation that during a heavy flow, young bees seem to be oriented and 
able to fly and that hives consume pollen supplement at the entrance would 
suggest that during hot weather and a strong flow that those young bees 
venture further.

The difference between hives being fed outside or inside the hive and bees 
with no income on cool (5 degree Celsius) days is quite striking.  I 
recently have had the opportunity to compare.

In the former case, where feed is available, bees fly and forage even in the 
cool air and the bees in the hive are loosely clustered if at all.  Any 
dropped on the ground fly or walk back in.

In the latter case, no income, the bees are clustered and torpid.  Any 
dropped on the ground may not be able to warm up and get back in.

This reminds me of a comment made a long time back by Dave Green about 
beekeepers putting out a little syrup to stimulate bees to get active on 
pollination where the crop to be pollinated is not all that generous or 
attractive. 

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