Dr. Cam Jay, recently retired from the University of Manitoba, and several
graduate students over many years, studied the extent of drift of honey bees,
and the effect of various factors such as orientation marks, colour, entrance
direction. Don Dixon, Provincial Apiarist Manitoba Agriculture, Agricultural
Services Complex, Rm 201 - 545 University Crescent, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 5S6
Tel (204) 945 3861 Fax (204) 945-4327, was one of the grad students and could
give you a better summary, and specifics. Dr. Rob Currie, a more recent grad
student, worked on the drift of drones. He is now at Dept of Biological
Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6
 
As part of a study of the resistance to tracheal mites of a variety of lines of
honey bees, I marked newly-emerged bees, introduced them into an infested
colony (in a yard of 20 -25), then retreived them on day 7 or 11. I've done this
6 times over 2 years,  between April and August. There were seasonal
differences, but I was sometimes surprised to find quite a few of these marked
bees flying by day 11, and in one case found a few marked bees in every one of
the 20 -25 other colonies, from 2000 - 2500 bees introduced into 3 hives. At
other times I recovered over 90 % of the marked bees in the hive they had been
placed. I wonder if these introduced bees drift similarly to normaly emerged
ones.