User:BenXD.393/sandbox

Nest site selection
A good nesting site for honey bees must be large enough to accommodate their swarm (minimum 15 liters in volume, preferably ≈40 liters). It should be well protected from the elements, and have a small entrance (approximately 12.5 cm squared) located at the bottom of the cavity. It must receive a certain amount of warmth from the sun, and should not be infested with ants. In addition to these criteria, nest sites with abandoned honeycombs, if the scout bees can find one, are preferred, because this allows the bees to better conserve their resources.

The scout bees are the most experienced foragers in the resting swarm cluster. An individual scout returning to the cluster promotes a location she has found. She uses the waggle dance to indicate its direction, distance, and quality to others in the cluster. The more excited she is about her findings, the more excitedly she dances. If she can convince other scouts to check out the location she found, they take off, check out the proposed site, and choose to promote the site further upon their return.

Several sites may be promoted by different scouts at first. After several hours and sometimes days, a favorite location gradually emerges from this decision-making process. In order for a decision to be made in a relatively short amount of time (the swarm can only survive for about three days on the honey on which they gorged themselves before leaving the hive), a decision will often be made when somewhere around 80% of the scouts have agreed upon a single location and/or when there is a quorum of 20-30 scouts present at a potential nest site. (If the swarm waited for less than 80% of the scouts to agree, the bees would lack confidence in the suitability of the site. If they waited for more than 80% of the scouts to agree, the swarm would be wasting its stored honey. )

When the scouts bees agree where to nest, the whole clustered swarm takes off and flies to it. A swarm may fly a kilometer or more to the scouted location, with the scouts guiding the rest of the bees by quickly flying overhead in the proper direction. This collective decision-making process is remarkably successful in identifying the most suitable new nest site and keeping the swarm intact.