Kelly Kulhanek and Dan Reynolds from the University of Maryland Bee Informed Partnership [BIP https://beeinformed.org/] gave a presentation where they discussed research in which they painted the bees from a crashing colony one color and bees from healthy control colony a different color and then placed both colonies in the center of other colonies within flight range. The researchers then monitored whether painted bees showed up at the surrounding hives.
Results: painted bees from the crashing colony were found in colonies up to 3 kilometers (1.5 miles) away but none of the painted bees from the healthy hive were seen.
I do not know if the study has been published yet, but it does show bees migrate from crashing colonies.
Regards,
Debbie Hewitt in Maryland
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