>
>
> >The suggestion has been made that they do not do this in natural
> settings.


In areas where natural cavities are scarce, honey bee colonies often occur
at great density in spots where nest sites are available, such as isolated
patches of trees, or rock formations.

The Arnot forest is a different situation, with widely-dispersed nest sites
available, and not a lot of forage.  Thus, isolated colonies gain a fitness
benefit from lack of competition, resulting in wide spacing.

But that would not be so where floral resources were not the limiting
factor.

We must be careful about extrapolating from single observations!

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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