>Anyway, does anybody have an opinion or knowledge on the question of the
>randomness or otherwise of bees' leaving the hive?  Perhaps someone might
>be interested in making some observations.
 
I've noticed a similar phenomenon with yellowjackets that I've been
collecting as they _return_ to the nest (when I start collecting the
"cadres" _leaving_ the nest seem to correlate highly with my thumping on
on the nest envelope ;-).  Anyway, even before disturbing the nest it
seems that foragers returning to the nest do so in small groups (the
vacuum unit will be drawing air only and then "thwip, thwip, thwip" a
number of yellowjackets will fly into the nozzle on their way home.  If
the observation is legitimate and not merely an artifact of my only
_noticing_ the clumps then I would guess that it is a result of
orientation behaviour-- either the rearguard of a cadre are following a
more experienced forager (or one genetically better able to orient to the
nest opening) or, alternatively, pheromonal cues become intermittently more
acute as wind or air movement from within the nest increase the signal
amplitude of the chemical message.  If you would like to look at this
scientifically perhaps we can come up with a protocol-- seems like
tallying the number of entries or exits per unit time would be a fairly
simple procedure.
 
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