Studying the dynamics of the hive

Yesterday the hive decided to move on its own out of the boxes. I found them about 30 feet from the hive box. I found them by almost accidentally stepping on the them. I went home to get my suit, returned and scooped them up and returned them to the box.Lets just say they weren't happy about being moved.  I found about 50 stingers in my welding gloves.Luckily only a few pierced through far enough.

As I was making trips back and forth I discovered the queen crawling on the ground. I scooped her up and quickly ran her to the box. The rest of the hive started swarming back to the old home. I think they were tripped out by the new box and getting attacked by ants.
Here is a video I took yesterday.


They were still around today, doing some housecleaning.

The dynamics are interesting. I watched them carry out the dead. Which I had known they do as part of their house keeping, but what was a shocker was they also carried out weak bees, but instead of dumping them outside the door on the ground below, a single bee would carry the dead off to the field and drop them off about 45 feet away.... that is crazy. I guess its all about the good of the hive. Hard to think about the good of the hive when a bee's life is only 2 months or so.

So much to learn.