The living tradition of swarming is a moment of celebration throughout culture, as the honeybee sets forth on a maiden voyage toward a new home.
In spring, new life emerges from the chrysalis of the hive and marks the opening of the swarm season. This informs the honey hunters to begin preparations.
Hives are built using local materials and smoked. These hives are then hung in trees or placed nearby to other hives.
The swarm temporarily clusters, often on a tree branch, while scouts search for a new nest site. Once a location is chosen, the entire swarm relocates together.
Inside the hive "Dance tempos at the time of swarm departure indicate movement to cavities at distances from 200 m to 10 km" (Villa, 2004)
Through swarming, Apis species enhance fitness and adaptability across diverse environments, making swarming an essential driver of evolutionary and ecological success.
This process facilitates gene flow across landscapes, allowing for the evolution of ecotypes and locally adapted genetics. These ecotypes can differ in behaviour, physiology, and resistance.
"The study of Lindauer (1955, 1961) has shown us that a swarm typically considers a dozen or more alternative nest sites. And various prior studies (reviewed by Seeley 1985; Witherell 1985) have shown us that a swarm evaluates each alternative nest site with respect to at least six distinct attributes with different weightings: cavity volume, entrance height, entrance area, entrance direction, entrance position relative to the cavity floor, and presence of combs from a previous colony."
- Research at the University of Sydney into original bees of Apis. Cerana the Eastern Honeybee shows impressive genetics:
“We could essentially observe natural selection acting over time in a population that started with low genetic diversity,” Dr Gloag said. “From this unique vantage point, we could see that selection was acting on the variation in genomes that had arrived with the handful of original bees. It wasn’t variation that arose later” (Dr Ros Gloag, 2024)
