yeah thats what I thought.
I guess it matters on what Cobalt's bees are feasting on. Does every hive gather from the same places or do they spread out to avoid competition? (as you can tell I'm no beekeeper/honey maker!) I know bees can be "tribal" but don't know how those tribes are defined. Edumacate me!
LOL...happy to do so! I love bees and pretty much every thing about them.
Its very interesting, they don't go to the same places. Now, I am talking about, for example, bees in an apiary like mine where there is forage for them in every direction. If I were on the edge of, say a huge orchard, they would probably all go there.
As to their ability to stay in their own colony...
They find their way to their own box by direction and pheromones. Before a bee makes its very first flight, they do little orientation flights around the hive, a few feet at a time, in growing circles. That is how they imprint the GPS, basically, of the hive. And each hive has a unique queen with her own scent pheromone signature. If I took queens from hives two feet away and switched them, the bees would kill each of the queens, her scent basically holds the hive together, and the bees that are at the opening of the hive use their wings to "fan" this scent to returning foragers, this helps verify their GPS, so to speak.
Its pretty amazing, really.....If I took a box more than three feet away, the bees would just keep flying to that spot even though their box was so close.
Anyway,
I have my 10 box hives very close to one another....on one bench there are three and they are only a few feet apart. But, we do fact the openings in different directions, which makes is easier for them to get home to the right hive. (however, a bee returning with pollen or nectar would not be turned away from any hive...) Anyway, one of these hives, the Tower of Power is always FULL of nectar, while the ones two feet away have average amounts. Its weird!!! I can see the bees leave, and I know one hive heads one direction, another goes another direction. They can be bringing in mango, avocado, wild invasive trees, or my garden basils. Only when you place them in a specific, large single forage can you say, oh, this xyz honey. And each of these varietals is distinct, as frick said about tupelo.
But even the "wild forage" honey from my own beeyard can taste and look SO different. And the dark honeys done necessarily taste stronger than the light, its not like beers, for example.
But this is why if you buy local honey from someone like me, you have to trust that they are using methods in beekeeping and that you agree with, and that they will be selling you clean, raw, natural honey, even if it doesn't tast the same from season to season.
I mix all my hives' honeys together, unless one looks really different, darker or lighter than the rest. But I still call them by a by the name of my area and add "light" "amber" or dark....and let people taste them if I am at a market situation.
(Also, some honey crystallizes faster than others, and thats a consideration, too. Some people love that, some don't)
BTW, A bee's forage area maxes out at 4 miles in any direction, meaning a radius of 4 miles from the hive. Most bees won't forage that far, and there would be more losses (tattered wings, etc) but two miles is easy for a bee, and imagine if the flowers are right next to the hives, they can make dozens of trips in a day.
I attached a picture of the scale used to give honey colors a numerical value. Pretty cool, isnt it!! :