Drifting Question

[Pond Creek Farm]

I just harvested this morning and found someting interesting. I have five hives.  All are new this year (four packages and one complete hive).  The packages were all started on varying levels of drawn comb.  The hives are all oriented in a line from West to East.  The only two hives that prodiced any excess honey were on the ends (both packages).  The westernmost hive gave a full super of honey and the easternmost three frames.  Both are two deeps full of bees, brood and honey. Is this a drifting issue or a queen issue or perhaps a bit of both?   What was really cool as well was seeing the darker and lighter honey on different frames in the same super and sometimes on the same frame.  We crushed and strained them separately.

[AllenF]

Bees do drift to the outside hives when they are in a row.   Just a fact of life.  You can paint the front of the boxes and landing boards different colors to help the bees out.   I use cheap spray paint left over from other projects, just paint right over the white.   Nothing pretty.