Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2002 Jul 7;269(1498):1383-8.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2002.2001.

Deciding on a new home: how do honeybees agree?

N F Britton  1 , N R Franks, S C Pratt, T D Seeley
Affiliations

Deciding on a new home: how do honeybees agree?

N F Britton et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

A swarm of honeybees (Apis mellifera) is capable of selecting one nest-site when faced with a choice of several. We adapt classical mathematical models of disease, information and competing beliefs to such decision-making processes. We show that the collective decision may be arrived at without the necessity for any bee to make any comparison between sites.

PubMed Disclaimer