Town Meeting of the Bees

When a swarm of bees separates from an established colony, it does not go at once to a new home. Most swarms settle on a bush or tree, and form themselves into buzzing balls with the queen in the center. After hours or days of debating, the swarm makes up its collective mind and flies to a suitable cranny.

In Nature, Dr. M. Lindauer of the University of Munich tells how bees reach their decision. Prosperous colonies send out swarms when nectar is plentiful and storage cells are full of honey. A few days before the emotional orgy that results in swarming, forager bees have been returning to the hive to find neither need nor space for the nectar they have gathered. On their next trips they do not look for nectar. Instead, they investigate knotholes and crannies under rocks. Some built-in nervous mechanism has reminded them that when the colony needs no more nectar, it will soon need a new home.

While the swarming excitement rises, the house-hunting scouts start making their reports. They do it by a stylized dance, just as honey scouts report their finds of nectar-yielding flowers. Dr. Lindauer marked bees that he found poking into crannies, and later watched them making their reports. The direction of their dancing told the other bees the direction of the prospective home site they had found. The vigor of their dance was proportionate to the site's desirability.

The bees make no immediate decision, but the scouts continue to dance their reports after the swarm has separated and is hanging on a bush. Some favor a hollow tree 300 yards away; others have found a cranny under a barn floor. Often there are many factions, each dancing in a different direction. The debate may continue for several days.

While each dancing faction is still pushing its own choice, the swarm makes no move. Then one by one the factions dwindle, as scouts become converted to rival points of view. Finally all the scouts are boosting the same site. Only then does the swarm take wing and permit itself to be led to its new home.

This system of peaceful and democratic debate, says Dr. Lindauer. is almost always effective, and generally the choice of the winning faction is the best available site. Once in a while, however, the demo cratic process fails an unlucky colony. In one tragic case, the factions debated for 14 days and reached no decision. At last the swarm built its nest in the open, and perished during the winter.

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