> do the scout bees change their size 
> preference based on the size of the 
> original hives or swarms?

> Dr. Seeleys work was with wild hives,  
> so does a huge domestic hive look at 
> bigger boxes?  hence the different observations???

I think that Seeley's work would be explained by Tom himself as showing a
clear PREFERENCE by bees for a 40-liter cavity, but one should recall that
not all hives will discover all possible cavities, so some swarms will
select the best option from among the cavities FOUND, even if a more perfect
cavity might be within flight range.

That said, the bees have changed since them.  I see lots of photos of swarms
being removed from water meter pits, and these are invariably not even as
big as a single shallow (or Ross Round) super.  The general wisdom used to
be that this was a sign of Africanization, as European Honeybees were said
to never like an underground cavity, and would reject such a small cavity.
Your mileage may vary, but I'm not taking home any swarms that nest in tiny
and unusual places.

I've never seen an area completely devoid of potential bee nest sites, so I
am not one to judge if a water meter pit might be the only choice in a
certain area.  How bad do the choices have to be to make a water meter pit
look like a good idea to a honeybee?

I've not had bees moving into my empty gear, as I super up before swarming
starts most years - I am the eternal optimist, and I still manage my bees
like they are going into apples, so they need the space early, as real
beekeepers stimulate their colony expansion in a foot of snow.  Recently the
spring weather has not been cooperating, so I've had candy boards on some
hives in April, as all the bees were grounded by what seemed "the worst
spring ever".

Ley Lines?  Ha!  Don't get me started. Go ahead and really map some, and
look at how far off the "lines" most of these sites are.  Any Boy Scout with
a compass and a topo map could reduce the ley lines theory to smoldering ash
in a half hour.  The amazing thing is how wonderfully accurate and detailed
the British Ordnance Survey maps have always been, leaving no excuses for
the original proponents, who were British.

The original text that advanced the Ley Lines theory is online here.  Yes, I
read stuff like this.  Gotta give everyone a fair hearing.
http://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/ebt/index.htm

I think it speaks for itself.

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