I am not sure this is a bug but it certainly feel like it.

From what I understand from the code, the hive only checks for nearby entities. But with the simulator upgrade, bees never go out and never trigger this checks.
I would simply suggest checing first for bees inside the hive then around it. It would fix that strange behaviour and be lighter too.

yes that's an oversight

Looking into this I can see that it checks around the hive, not the bee, so the correct check is already in place. I'll bump it up though to look a little bit further out.