system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If you release a bee does it just go and find any old hive to join?
gpt
No/unlikely. An individual bee cannot survive outside the context of the hive. The singular unit of measurement in honey bees is the colony, which is why they are considered a super organism. It would be highly unusual for a lone bee to join up with another colony. Bees orient themselves to the location of their hive, and return to it after foraging. If released the bee would likely try to find her way home. Beekeepers will switch locations of a strong hive and a weak hive as a way of bolstering the weak hive because returning foragers will go where their hive was when they left and will be accepted as part of the colony.