>Just a thought that I had today whilst searching for the queen in a mildly
>defensive colony in a rather cool breeze - if you open and move an AHB
>colony,  would they not 'fly freely' whatever the weather?

Well, that is not the point.  For the manipulation to have the desired
result, the bees *must* be able to remember the location of their old hive
so strongly that they automatically return to the original location.

If you have merely disturbed a hive that has been confined by weather and
not been foraging strongly, you may cause the bees to fly freely all right,
but they will follow you and/or the hive, and may very well *not* return to
where the hive stood at the beginning of the exercise, because they will
have no memory -- or only a dim memory -- of that spot!

allen

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