A honeybee swarm is how bees make a new colony by splitting their group in half.

Swarming happens when a beehive gets too crowded in the spring or summer. Before leaving, the worker bees raise a new queen to stay behind and lead the old hive. The departing group includes one queen and about 10,000 to 20,000 worker bees. They first land on a tree branch or a building to form a tight cluster.While the group waits, special 'scout bees' fly out to find a permanent home. Dr. Thomas Seeley from Cornell University found that these scouts use a 'waggle dance' to tell the group about good spots. They look for hollow trees or small gaps in walls. The bees then vote on the best location based on the scouts' dances.The bees keep the queen warm in the center of the cluster by shivering their wing muscles. This keeps her at a steady 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Once the group agrees on a spot, they all fly there at once. They can reach speeds of 24 kilometers per hour (15 mph). This process helps the bee population grow and prevents the original hive from becoming too full.