MODEL RELEASED. Beekeeper hiving a honeybee (Apis mellifera) swarm. He using a board to lead them up to an empty beehive which they will colonise. The bees were collected in a skep (lower left). A swarm is a group of bees that have separated from a colony to form a new one. Swarming is initiated by the queen bee, who leaves the hive and is followed by a large number of worker bees. Virgin queen bees in the old colony compete to become the new queen, while the old queen may control the new colony for a few weeks until she is replaced by a new queen.