> It is a notable characteristic of the African honeybee races that most issue several afterswarms per colony and in turn there may be several virgin afterswarms. The reproductive potential for an individual colony is thus enormous in principle and must be assessed in terms of probable success. Part of this potential is greatly reduced through the restoration of monogyny. All of the races listed in Table 5.1 produce polygynous afterswarms and their multiple queens survive until the afterswarm settles and begins nest building, at which time all the supernumerary queens are eliminated. Equally, afterswarms of all races may amalgamate with other swarms, redivide and re-amalgamate, but when they eventually settle in a nest cavity the supernumeraries are reduced until a single queen remains. This is the first phase of queen selection, but the interactions that determine the outcome remain completely unexplored. 

-- Hepburn, H. R., & Radloff, S. E. (1998). Mating and Fecundity. In Honeybees of Africa (pp. 163-184). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

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