>> The nectar foragers in a colony acquire information about their 
colony's nutritional status by noting the difficulty of finding food 
storer bees to receive their nectar,...

>> A more detailed view of the behavior of food storer bees reveals 
that their behavior is strongly influenced by the number of empty 
storage cells in the hive. 

What is being assumed here is that "the number of empty 
storage cells in the hive" is the same to the bees as it is to a human.

I contend that this parameter changes with the hives's experience and
ambient conditions.  In an infinitely huge hive, would bees expand and 
forage infinitely? 

No, of course not.  The bees are cold blooded and also social.  There 
are geometric constraints to the volume they will store in and consider 
to be "the (current) number of empty storage cells in the hive".

This varies with all the factors previously suggested.  These are 
cold-blooded critters and although the nest size can become huge in
hot weather, it contracts in cold.

That is sorta like the Earth's habitable regions.  In warm cycles humans 
expand north and start farms in Greenland.  In cold cycles they retreat 
south and leave that country to glaciers and a few hardy souls.

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