This is quite interesting to me because I have been pondering the advantages (if any) of colonial nesting among honey bees since I began beekeeping. I had not acquired the term polydomy as a descriptor, but was thinking of the term "colonial nesting" as it is used in ornithology, meaning an area with closely-spaced nests of the same species that gives a significant breeding advantage to some birds. My late Mother was an ornithologist who studied a colonial nesting bird, the Maguari stork.  In the northeast, great blue herons and cormorants would be familiar colonial nesting examples.

My bees were all from swarms that had installed themselves in separate, but close-by, cavities in walls in one of my barns. These cavities had been continuously occupied (but not by the same bees) for decades before I had my bees hived.

I have chosen to keep my bees in closely-placed stacks since they came under my care.  In the winter they share a common stand and literally  touch each other (with only enough foam insulation to accommodate the overhang of the telecovers to separate them).  For my own convenience, in the summer I move them slightly farther apart, though never very far, perhaps 6-15 inches, at most.  

What I have observed is that, in contrast to predictions, I have little robbing pressures among the large, mature, colonies and their assorted daughters in nucs, often standing just inches away.  I have not figured out why this is so, but it is a long-standing characteristic of my yard. Perhaps the presence of populous and very active colonies confuses, or wards off, out-of-apiary robbers looking for a weak colony to knock over. Perhaps colonies are less-likely to rob their own daughter-queened hives if they stay close.  Perhaps this proximity-courtesy extends beyond their simple  genetic relationships. I have four long-running queen lines, and as a rule I do not move bees or brood frames among the colonies; I take pains to keep the social relationships among a particular colony's inhabitants stable.  I do move frames of stores to equalize resources at close-out, but I remove the bees, first.

I am certain I have more drifting risk, and according to this study I also may have more drifting advantages, as well. (And I consider the whole apiary to be one extended group and treat them for varroa according to the most-infested colony's needs.)

It just makes sense to me that such a highly socially-adapted species might also have some inter-colony social adaptations as well. Historically bees have been kept (apparently successfully) in close-placed colonies in Europe and the mid-East.

Yet, the siren song of Seeley's work, and the oft-repeated statements about avoiding drift, etc.,  had me thinking over the winter about moving my colonies on to separate stands this summer.  Perhaps separating them as much as two to six feet apart will break the spell and they will lose their sense of harmoniously, and apparently equitably, shared space.  I just don't know. 

Nancy

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