I'll have to try the auger hole trick. FYI, for critical trials, we often
use bold, colored shapes attached to each hive - both the color and shapes
vary, so that we provide two types of visual cues.
That said, I suspect that the drift to strong colonies may be attractant
to a pheromone - and maybe less aggressive guard bees. Some colonies let
anyone in the door. When we mark and release bees at a distance from the
beeyard (using a different color for all 4 compass directions), we see the
marked bees heading to the strong colonies - and bees of all 4 colors end up
in the strong colony).
Jerry
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