Re. Drifting. Bees seem to drift, under various predicaments, not necessarily due to disorientation caused by the beekeeper’s stacking the identical boxes tightly. Do a little experiment with nurse bees, for example. If you shake the inner cover, attached with hundreds of young bees, over the entrance of a weak colony in the distance, they will readily be accepted with Zero fighting, a fact we exploit to strengthen colonies by giving them all stages of brood frames, coming from various colonies. When I pair two colonies side by side, I always make sure their landing boards are painted differently; however, I have a sneaky suspicion that they drift, unawares, till they settle down, and then a little more even after, just as in the rare case of continous robbing. Furthermore, any adult bee hauling in nectar, it is well documented, will be accepted most of the time by strangers; in this archive and elsewhere someone had already done the color experiment—-dumping bees in no man’s land, marked with color, and finding them back about an hour later in the neighboring colonies in the vicinity. Stragglers, too, eventually join back to the parent colony or are absorbed by neighboring colony, it appears, for I have yet to witness a solitary honey bee, an oxymoron given their social existence. Bees are, I find, resilient, flexible, and constantly adapting—-all the more remarkable considering their simple yet elegant design. Look at the size of their head. Yoon Shawnee, OK :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::