Tom Barrett asks about returning to his home apiary an experimental nucleus he
had moved elsewhere.  How soon could he do this?
Tom, I don't know the answer. Probably it depends on the time of year and how
long ago you moved them out of the home apiary.  In mid summer the turnover of
bees is a few weeks but in our part of the world  (the offshore islands of
western europe) bees hatched in mid July may well still be alive the following
March.  I presume without knowing that their memory of home location is
lifelong.  This is a hypothesis you may care to test with another experimental
nuc and marked bees next year.
Bees do re-programme their memory of location when they swarm.  This is why
the Taranov swarm control method works.  You can shake a swarm and hive it in
the same apiary that it came from.  As this is an experimental nuc you may
wish to undertake another experiment with it.  Shake all the bees off the
combs and hive them in a skep or the equivalent.  Take the skep of bees and
box of empty combs home and re unite them.   Note what happens and tell us
please.
Chris Slade