the biggest hive society on earth at the moment is the face book community, off which i am one, reluctantly i confess, i see some merit but at the end of the day but staying in touch is a strange excuse to be a drone, checking in your status every so often, posting your thoughts, photographs and video's. the blog is not part of a hive as it is not connected to any thing else, it's read by a few readers and mostly ignored. face book on the other hand, lays a pathway, you connect with like minded people and generally start networking your various feeds. the hive is not in any physical space but in a way it's just as much a hive as any ants nest, we are all becoming drones. 
i am sick of the blue and white face book page layout, it's hardly individual, in fact for all the various enlightened posts one thing is strangely never mentioned, the fact everyone is in uniform. 
other hive minds occur in large crowds, sporty people at big events, rock concerts. jim morrison played around with this idea, attempting to get a crowd rioting, as did some off our favourite dictators, working with masses is easier than working with individuals, it's mass production methods of controls, tv works well in this way as does print media. and here we are back to the internet, where we can see a holographic representation of human conciousness, mostly obsessed with pornography and conspiracy theory. the hive mind. a classic example is the way conspiracy theory's spread like fire especially if they have the words,'jew or israel' in them, for this is one hive that appears to instil pathological hate, then watch the hive minds turn into shark frenzy as the perceived enemy enters.
hives can be efficient if they have well thought out small goals and they operate with little external interference but often these are considered the most threatening and once one hive appears to infiltrate another efficiency ceases and conflict ensues. in order for humans to function as a hive successfully they would have to retreat from the rest of society for a few thousand years as baxter suggests in his book, then there's a chance evolution will assist develop the biological imperatives to succeed over other hives. off course if two hives successfully interconnect it would be a bit like an ant colony intermingling with a cassiopeia swarm of jelly fish. it's improbable but not impossible. 
countries manifest within clearly defined borders, if they are run by dictators, or run by an anti democratic authority they are effective hives, look at chevez controlling all media in venezuela, north korea and china are good examples, but democracies to can have hive mentality, religions and most ideologies and once you get a hive mentality the individual is weakened. 
the strength in the hive mind lies in warfare, and again baxter seems to encapsulate this, an army can be sacrificed for the right outcome. these soldiers have no connection to anything except the protection and defence of the hive, that's why they join up and are then brainwashed. it's a process, and lets face it in a just war against a brutal adversary that's what you want.
hives are also about genetics, passing on the gene successfully, the queen can mate only once and receive thousands of sperm all pass on her dna, the male is potentially a breeding unit or a fighting one. the prime directive of the colony is to genetically reproduce itself. families do this and the larger the family the bigger the hive potential, thus early clan like societies.
hive minds can be said to be a collective consciousness, often i think the mind separated from the actual organic unit, in the same way electricity is made from a generator, it is not the generator.

i do think it's important for the individual to check in with the hive occasionally, certainly in my own case, i like to check in with the hives i feel are healthy and reasonably sound, others i avoid or occasionally i infiltrate and play trickster.