The researchers think that this early foraging is probably a natural response to a variety of things that cause a drop in the number of older bees and that if the problem goes away quickly, food stores are high or the colony is large enough, it can smooth a bump in the road for the bees.

If the problem continues, the young bees' natural response could be a significant factor in causing a rapid catastrophic collapse of the colony.

Dr Perry thinks that monitoring the age at which bees start foraging could be a good way to estimate the overall health of a hive and could help in the search for ways to prevent colony collapse disorder.

You can read more about the research here

Find out more about colony collapse disorder in this Buzzfeed article 'Why The Death Of 37 Million Bees Matters To You'