> Chaos theory is the appropriate perspective to take for considering this phenomenon 

Thanks, Trish, for elevating the conversation to the next level. The honey bee colony does not function like an Automated Teller Machine. Seeley's discovery of quorum sensing in bees may also be relevant here. 

I am reminded also of how the human mind uses incomplete data (like something caught in a glance) to generate sometimes incorrect conclusions. A simple example is misreading or mishearing. Sometimes I "see" a word in a sentence, but when I go back I realize I "misread." And how may times have you said "that's not what I heard." ?

What I am getting at is that bees get fragmented data sets too, and possibly make mistakes in judgement.

Pete
🐝

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