Jim said:>>>> I don't know of any "emergent behavior" that appears when I
take a yard from 6 hives to 12 or from

12 hives to 24. If physics had any help to offer to beekeepers, I'd be a
much better beekeeper!  <<<<<<

How about death. I admit it's a bit poetic to think of death as a behavior
but it is not unknown in other species. 

If you form a rat hotel and crowd them enough certain behaviors emerge.
Mating rituals are absent and when a female does give birth the young aren't
cared for. This is a behavior that emerge from crowding. I'm not seriously
going to defend this idea but let's think it first. Bee behavior of the same
sort could still be invisible for us. I'm not sure physics transfers to
every situation but logic does. The data is, bees die better in large
groups.

 

Jim said further: >>>>> But this is a one-way street.

Many things don't scale UP, but anything can scale DOWN.<<<<<<

Sorry Jim, Let me borrow from animal behavior again. To escape predators
many species just run. (Others freeze). If said species is a herd animal or
a school of fish this activity is much different in a substantial group than
it is when the prey is alone. Prey in these species run in circles,
constantly circling back to the crowd. This confuses and tires predators as
they have difficulty singling out a specific prey animal. In birds this is
called "flocking." I'd like to know how this scales down. 

 


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