Bees are weird

[pollenchucker]

I sit with the bees for about an hour in the morning when they are just getting revved up and an hour in the late afternoon while they are still busy.  I like to watch their activity. I try to figure out where they are going to and where they are coming from.  I try to pay attention to how many are landing with loaded pollen sacs, what color, etc.  See what other activities might be going on around the outside of the hive, like wash boarding, or just adding a little extra muscle to the ventilation system, or just plain old house cleaning and poopy time.  I watch the ones coming in exhausted and presumably fully loaded that can't make the last 6" into the hive and fall down into the grass.  Sometimes some of them pop back up after a few minutes of rest and sometimes they don't.  I am accumulating a fair store of mummified bee carcuses in the wells of a couple of cinder blocks that station my hive. 
But to my point.  When the bees are active and charging both in and out of the hive I like to try to watch where the out going bees are going, because that direction changes periodically.    Then I like to go take a walk and see if I can find whatever it is that is in bloom over in that direction.  Often it is the same thing they have been working on elsewhere but is now more ready for them in this new location. 
But this is what gets me.  Some bees charge out of the hives like rockets on a direct course. Altitude, trajectory, and velocity all firmly locked in place.  Others might throw a few S curves into their plan but still maintain a relatively straightforward course, while some will break left or right at anytime within their flight paths.  Some will do complete U turns and after to ascending to a particular height turn completely around and go 180 degrees in the opposite direction they started out in.  Some will do multiple ascending 360 degree spirals before heading off toward target.
I just find it amazing the diversity of their behaviors as they all seem to be doing a fine job sustaining their hive.  I would like to understand it but if that can't be I do rather just appreciate it.

[MrJeff]

I like the ones that fly round and round in an upward spiral until they are about fifty feet up, and then shoot off in the direction of whatever they are foraging.