thumb333px 澳洲墨爾本的一群分封中的西洋蜜蜂 分封（Swarming）也稱分蜂 是蜜蜂群體的繁殖方式。在分封過程中，單一蜂群會分裂成兩個或更多不同的蜜蜂群體。 分封主要出現在春季兩至三週內，具體取決於地點。偶爾不在春季也會發生分封。通常第一次分封是由老的蜂王帶走一群工蜂，而蜂巢中留下新的蜂王；有時，一個蜂箱會連續分封，第二次以後的分封，通常蜂群較小，由新的處女蜂王與工蜂群組成，直到幾乎耗盡工蜂與蜂王。 東方蜂與西方蜂都有分封的行為，他們會在從原蜂巢先往巢外移動，以聚集的蜂群停留幾天，等待偵察蜂找到合適的新址後，再一同前往。Seeley Thomas D The wisdom of the hive the social physiology of honey bee colonies Harvard University Press 2009 一般認為，東方蜂分蜂的習性較西方蜂頻繁。 醞釀 Worker bees create queen cups throughout the year When the hive is getting ready to swarm the queen lays eggs into the queen cups New queens are raised and the hive may swarm as soon as the queen cells are capped and before the new virgin queens emerge from their 蜂后 s A laying queen is too heavy to fly long distances Therefore the workers will stop feeding her before the anticipated swarm date and the queen will stop laying eggs Swarming creates an interruption in the brood cycle of the original colony During the swarm preparation scout bees will simply find a nearby location for the swarm to cluster When a honey bee swarm emerges from a hive they do not fly far at first They may gather in a tree or on a branch only a few metres from the hive There they cluster about the queen and send 2050 scout bees out to find suitable new nest locations This intermediate stop is not for permanent habitation and they will normally leave within a few hours to a suitable location It is from this temporary location that the cluster will determine the final nest site based on the level of excitement of the dances of the scout bees It is unusual if a swarm clusters for more than three days at an intermediate stop Swarming creates a vulnerable time in the life of honey bees Swarms are provisioned only with the nectar or honey they carry in their stomachs A swarm will starve if it does not quickly find a home and more nectar stores This happens most often with early swarms that leave on a warm day that is followed by cold or rainy weather in spring The remnant colony after having produced one or more swarms is usually well provisioned with food But the new queen can be lost or eaten by 捕食 s during her mating flight or poor weather can prevent her mating flight In this case the hive has no further young brood to raise additional queens and it will not survive A cast swarm will usually contain a young virgin queen Absconding The propensity to swarm differs among the honey bee species 非洲化蜜蜂 s are notable for their propensity to swarm or abscond Absconding is a process where the whole hive leaves rather than splits like in swarming Being tropical bees they tend to swarm or abscond any time food is scarce thus making themselves vulnerable in colder locales Mainly for lack of sufficient winter stores the Africanized bee colonies tend to perish in the winter in higher latitudes Generally a weak bee colony will not swarm until the colony has produced a larger population of bees Weak bee colonies can be the result of low food supply disease such as or from a queen that produces low quantities of eggs Nest site selection A good nesting site for honey bees must be large enough to accommodate their swarm minimum in volume preferably It should be well protected from the elements and have a small entrance approximately 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 蜜蜂舞蹈 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 decisionmaking 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 andor when there is a quorum of 2030 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 scout 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 directionBee Swarms Follow Highspeed Streaker Bees To Find A New Nest ScienceDaily Nov 24 2008 This collective decisionmaking process is remarkably successful in identifying the most suitable new nest site and keeping the swarm intact Beekeeping Swarm control methods Beekeepers who do not wish to increase their number of active hives may use one or more of many methods for swarm control Most methods simulate swarming to extinguish the swarming drive Clipping one wing of the queen When one wing of the queen is clipped a swarm may issue but due to the queens inability to fly the swarm will gather right outside the original hive where the swarm can be easily collected Even though this is not a swarm prevention method it is a method of swarm retrieval In the a frame of capped brood is removed with the old queen This frame is put in a hive box with empty drawn frames and foundation at the same location of the old hive A honey super is added to the top of this hive topped by a The remaining hive box sans queen is inspected for queen cells All queen cells are destroyed This hive box which has most of the bees is put on top of the queen excluder Foraging bees will return to the lower box depleting the population of the upper box After a week to ten days both parts are inspected again and any subsequent queen cells destroyed After another period of separation the swarming drive is extinguished and the hives can be recombined Simply keeping the brood nest open is another method of swarm control In preparation for swarming bees fill the brood nest with honey The queen stops laying to be trim enough to fly and her newly unemployed nurse bees go with her The concept of this method is to open the brood nest to employ those nurse bees and get the queen laying again and redirect this sequence of events This is done by any number of slight variations from empty frames in the brood nest frames of bare foundation in the brood nest or drawn combs in the brood nest or moving brood combs to the box above to cause more expansion of the brood nest In the late winter frames are rearranged above the growing brood nest The frames above the brood nest are alternated between full honey frames and empty drawn out frames or even foundationless frames It is believed that only colonies that perceive to have enough reserves will attempt to swarm Checkerboarding frames above the brood nest apparently destroys this sense of having reservesCushman David Swarm Control of Honey Bee Colonies Alternatively there are also swarm traps with 奈氏腺資訊素 lures that can be used to attract swarms Beekeepers who are aware that a colony has swarmed may add brood with eggs that is free of mites Given young brood the bees have a second chance to raise a new queen if the first one fails Swarm capture thumbrightBee swarm on tree branch in eastern Arkansas 蜂農 s are sometimes called to capture swarms that are cast by 野化 honey bees or from the 蜂巢 of domestic beekeepers Most beekeepers will remove a honeybee swarm for a small fee or maybe even free if they are nearby Bee swarms can almost always be collected alive and relocated by a competent beekeeper or bee removal company Extermination of a bee swarm is rarely necessary and discouraged if is possible There are various methods to capture a swarm When the swarm first settles down and forms a cluster it is relatively easy to capture the swarm in a suitable box or One method that can be employed on a sunny day when the swarm is located on a lower branch or small tree is to put a white sheet under the swarm location A nuc box is put on the sheet The swarm is sprayed from the outside with a sugar solution soaking the bees so they become too heavy to fly away and then vigorously shaken off the branch The main cluster hopefully including the queen will fall onto the white sheet and the bees will quickly go for the first dark entrance space in sight which is the opening of the nuc An organized march toward the opening will ensue and after 15 minutes the majority of bees will be inside the nuc This capture method does not work at night If the swarm is too embroiled in its perch so it cannot be dropped into a box or sheet a skep can be suspended over it and gentle smoke used to herd the swarm into the skep is not recommended to calm a clustered swarm Smoke will have the opposite effect on a clustered swarm as many bees will become agitated and fly about instead of settling down A can also be used Human behavior A swarm of bees sometimes frightens people though the bees are usually not aggressive at this stage of their life cycle This is principally due to the swarming bees lack of brood developing bees to defend and their interest in finding a new nesting location for their queen This does not mean that bees from a swarm will not attack if they perceive a threat however most bees only attack in response to intrusions against their colony Additionally bees seldom swarm except when the position of the sun is direct and impressive Swarm clusters hanging from a tree branch will move on and find a suitable nesting location in a day or two Encountering a bee swarm for the first time can be alarming Bees tend to swarm near their hives or honeycombs so if a swarm is visible then a nest is nearby Swarms are usually not aggressive unless provoked so it is important to keep a good distance from swarms in order to avoid provoking them 參考 外部連結 Swarm Prevention MAAREC Category 動物行為學 Category 昆蟲生態學 Category 動物遷徙 Category 蜜蜂