I found this reference to colonies combining: > In Africa, small colonies combine to form huge swarms as large as 610 liters, containing up to 500 mated queens (Silberrad 1976). MM Boreham - Bulletin of the ESA, 1987 Whoa! *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm