PSYCHE 
Vol. 86 
June-September, 1979 
No. 2-3 
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FLIGHT OF 
HONEY BEE SWARMS 
By Thomas D. Seeley, 1 Roger A. Morse 2 and 
P. Kirk Visscher 2 
Introduction 
The flight of honey bee (Apis mellifera) swarms is the most spec¬ 
tacular and yet one of the least understood aspects of honey bee 
social behavior. Over open countryside a flying swarm forms a small 
cloud, a swirling mass of some ten to twenty thousand individuals, 
loudly buzzing along at head height en route to a new home. There 
have been several studies of the behavior of a swarm as it emerges 
from its nest, clusters at an interim site, and there selects a new nest 
site (reviewed by Ambrose 1976 and Seeley and Morse 1978), but no 
one had ever recorded in detail the subsequent events of the long¬ 
distance flight to the new nest site. Moreover, a close analysis of 
honey bee swarm flight held the promise of clearly demonstrating 
division of labor within an insect society, in this instance between 
the scouts and nonscouts in honey bee swarms. 
The present account treats only the period from agreement upon 
the new nest site to the entrance of the swarm into its new home. We 
took special pains to record events simultaneously at the interim 
cluster site and the new nest site throughout this period. Only in this 
way could we begin to picture the full complexity of the social 
organization underlying honey bee swarm flight. 
Materials and Methods 
Study Sites. Most of the study was conducted in August 1979 at the 
Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island, Maine. This tree¬ 
less, 39-ha island lies 16 km offshore and lacks natural nest sites for 
^Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138 
^Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 
Manuscript received by the editor November 22, 1979. 
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