We recently found and brought home a bee nest in our survival realm. We had two bees and eventually bred them. We have (twice now) experienced all three bees leave the hives and search for new ones. We ended up finding one of our bees a couple hundred blocks away from the hive just today. 

What I expected to happen was...:
the bees staying around 50 blocks from the hive and not wandering off as if they don't have one.

What actually happened was...:
The bees fly away as if they don't have a hive.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Set down one bee nest and one hive.
2. Add two bees
3. Set campfires under the nests (in case it's important)
4. Wait