Swarming is the honeybees method of reproduction. When food supplies are plentiful and populations expanding, the hive will raise daughter queens. Just prior to the daughters emerging from their cell, the hive divides with up to half the workers and drones leaving with the old queen. The swarm will then seek a new home.

The first daughter queen to hatch in the old hive will destroy her rivals, and inherit the security of the established hive, with plentiful honey stores.