I was fortunate enough to attend a beginner beekeeping class taught by Virginia Tech professors. It was pointed out that bees have a limited ability to "count," i.e. if you lined up 4 hives, they knew theirs was the third from the left.
However, the study also showed that their ability to differentiate was improved if there was a pattern on their hive. It didn't matter what the pattern was, but as long as it was different from the neighboring hives, they seemed to find their own much easier. Makes sense, since bees find tasty flowers in different shapes & colors, and communicate that info within the colony.
And yes, it was probably someone's graduate thesis.