>
> >We did not swap hives, for the simple reason that the hives with the most
> bees got that way because the flying bees oriented on those particular
> locations. I assume that they would simply fly back.
>

It appears that you are begging the question, Pete, by basing your argument
on an assumption, rather than evidence.
Do you have any experimental evidence to support your assumption that the
drift was due to location rather than colony scent?

I'm not trying to be argumentative.  It appeared that you had the perfect
opportunity to test your hypothesis, but didn't take advantage of that
opportunity.

So I'm curious--has anyone else on the List swapped newly-installed package
colonies around in an attempt to equalize the drift; and if so, did you
find that the drift was due to location, or to colony scent?

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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