How are we going to find a new home?

After a swarm leaves their original hive with their queen, the workers cluster around her to protect her, while "scout bees" fly off in search of a suitable new nesting cavity. This can be the hollow inside a tree, within the walls of a structure, an existing hive or some other enclosed space above ground. Scouts returning to the cluster communicate their finds by dancing on the cluster surface. These flying and dancing scounts are the only bees in the cluster that are active. When all or most of the scout bees agree on the same new location through this dance language, the scouts, not the queen, lead the swarm to the new location apparently guding the flight by odor release.

(Photo by Harry Hillard)