Charles is not the only one with doubts about the intelligence of some small
fraction of his bees.

As we can attach photos, I've attached one - maybe 100 bees on an A/C
condensation pan overflow drain pipe.  This is the elevator shaft enclosure
on a 6th floor roof where I keep a few hives.  (Yep, talk about spoiled - I
take an air-conditioned elevator to the hives on a few of my roofs!  "Ivory
Tower beekeeping" at its most luxurious.)

These are the "stubborn ones" from a swarm that settled on the downspout on
can see in the background.  Yes, of course the queen was behind the
downspout, so off it had to come.

I never turn down free bees, so I hived the swarm, and situated the hive
about 20 yards away from this point.  But these returned to this spot, even
after being repeatedly brushed off into a small box that was emptied at the
hive entrance on successive evenings, after washing off the downspout, pipe
and wall areas with water, then soapy water, and then even by hand with
isopropyl alcohol sprayed by hand and wiping off with paper towels, as the
pipe and downspout are right next to the door to the roof, and people
exiting the door would tend to startle at bees flying close by.

But persist the bees did for several days, despite no comb, no food, and my
attempts to eliminate all pheromones and scents.  They knew the location,
and refused to go find the rest of their colony.

As Pooh so famously said: "One can never tell with bees".

But the bulk of the hive marched right into the cardboard nuc I used to
collect them, responding immediately to the relocation of the queen, as one
would expect.  

Not to seem condescending, the condensation was not attracting the bees, as
no bees had frequented that pipe ever before.  




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