Well, noone from BEE-L responded to my question re: bees from a queenless
colony  walking/crawling, in large numbers,  along the ground ...
 
I think I may have an answer, altho. it appears there isn't an interest in
this phenom ... I'll just send this hypothesis out anyway in case it
happens again ...
 
I think the bees are foraging for food ... the gal who called me,  later
told me that she had put honeycomb on the ground for the bees to feed on
(as opposed to sugar syrup from a board feeder, etc.; I don't really know
why she did this);  I'm thinking that she has actually "trained" her bees
to forage along  the ground ...
 
Sincerely,
 
E A Vogt