Swarming in honey bees is one of the least understood phenomena. Delia Allen wrote in 1965

The present observations had ·the aim of assessing as accurately as possible the extent of queen rearing and swarming if no preventive measures were taken, and at the same time investigating the relationship between the general development of the colony and the events culminating in the production of queens.

Prior to the present investigations, routine measures designed to prevent swarming had been used in the Departmental apiary, and it was expected that their absence would result in a considerable incidence of swarming. The results obtained came as a surprise: only 3 colonies swarmed out of a total of 81 in the four years.

— Allen, D. The Production of Queen Cups and Queen Cells in Relation to the General Development of Honeybee Colonies, and its Connection with Swarming and Supersedure

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